“If you haven’t ordered your water lilies, or iris, or the lotus and cat-tail seeds yet, I think I can get them for you from a gardener over White Plains way, and save you money, too. He will give me a lot of plants for nothing, because I’ve given him plenty of valuable advice for nothing in the past.
“As for the cement—order that from White Plains at once so you won’t be delayed after the clearing is done. In fact, if I were in your place, Mrs. James, I’d let Frances drive over and bring back as many bags at a time as she can comfortably carry in the car. The bags can be wrapped in paper to keep the car clean.”
“I wish I knew half as much as you do, Mrs. Tompkins, because I’d think myself something, then,” sighed Mrs. James.
Mrs. Tompkins laughed. “The more you really know, the more you discover how little you have actually understood. Then the fact of one human’s insignificance dawns upon you.”
“Well, we sure are glad you gave us all this advice, even if you do consider yourself an insignificant human,” said Norma in so earnest a tone that the others laughed merrily at her.
Frances drove Mrs. Tompkins back to Four Corners and got the metal pails to carry back to the farm. She then wrote down the address of the store where she was to go for the cement and finally started back for Green Hill.
Rachel spread a long table, constructed of several boards, placed across two trestles on the side lawn that evening, and then called every one to supper. It was her greatest delight to invite company to dinner or supper and this occasion was an unusual one to treat the men from Four Corners who had remained and helped with the work all that afternoon.
Hands and faces were washed at the hydrant where the garden hose was generally attached. Rachel provided towels and soap for every one, and a merry group of girls and farmers were soon splashing freely in order to hurry their toilets and sit down on the boxes that stood in rows beside the long plank table.
Perhaps it was the feast, or it may have been the merry scouts as they entertained these middle-aged villagers that made Si Tompkins declare as they were ready to go home: “Boys, shall we help the gals out again tomorrer? They’ve got a powerful lot of rocks to haul, yet!”
And that is how the scouts secured such desirable workers in doing the very heaviest part of the entire work on the water garden.