“I haven’t any idea of what to plant. The weeds have to all come out first, and then we may find that the soil is so dry and poor that it will need entrenching, as Mrs. Tompkins described, yesterday.”
“I’ve been thinking of it, while I was digging this morning, Jimmy, and I thought a border of squatty old-fashioned plants such as tansy, tarragon, rue and chervil, exactly like Mrs. Tompkins has about that board fence that screens her gardens from the grocery yard, would look fine. Then, between the border and the vines on the fence, we could plant all kinds of geraniums, in red, white or pink. They will grow, too, because they take root and will stand transplanting at any time of the summer season. If we shelter them for the first few days, to protect them from the hot rays of the sun, and keep the roots well watered in early morning and in the evening, they ought to take hold at once.”
“I’m sure they will, Norma, and I can see how pretty the effect of such massed plants will be,” responded Mrs. James. “And way down there, opposite Natalie’s vegetable gardens, we can add some more hollyhocks for next year. Those few now growing there look so forlorn and lonesome, trying to lean against the old fence.”
“We might plant some sun flowers right away—they will grow now, and bloom before September. That will give the lonely hollyhocks a little company, and provide feasts for the birds, too.”
“We’ll try it!” declared Mrs. James, and then just as Rachel’s welcome call for breakfast sounded over the lawn, and the two went towards the house to wash before appearing at the table, Rachel gave a whoop and stood waving her arms, as she gazed across the drying-lawn back of her kitchen.
“Dem fowls ’scaped from the barn yard, Natalie, and is eating yor greens as fas’ as they kin!” was the cook’s warning cry to the girls within the house.
In less than a minute, four girls streamed out of the back door and followed in the wake of the southern mammy, as she hurried down the pathway to the vegetable gardens. Norma and Mrs. James trailed after the four girls, but the trespassing hens and rooster were shooed away from the forbidden ground by the time the last two in the procession arrived on the scene.
“Now Janet, you’ve just got to get some wire and keep those horrid chickens in a yard,” wailed Natalie, when she saw the damage they had done to the tender tops of her greens.
So, soon after the breakfast, Janet started for Four Corners to purchase a roll of chicken wire for the runway. Belle and Frances offered to go with her and help carry the roll back to the house. Norma had too much to do with her flower gardening to think of leaving the work, so she was hard at her self-appointed tasks when the Lowdens drove up in their touring car and stopped in front of the house.
Mrs. James was indoors helping Rachel, when Mr. Lowden came along the side road and stopped back of Norma. The first inkling she had of anyone being near her was, when she heard a man’s amused voice asking “How is your garden growing?”