She told her parents of the coming of Sam and his dog; of the drive across country in search of a cow, and how they got one from Miss Jipson, and how the man Folsom tricked them with little Susy, but how Mrs. James squared accounts with him afterward.
She used several sheets of paper to tell how Janet’s chickens escaped and dug up Natalie’s precious vegetables and how Rachel fooled Janet into believing the old Leghorn hens were laying eggs every day, while all this time Sam was sent regularly to put the eggs from the farmer in the nests. Then she described how Janet thought she had poison-ivy rash all over her, but discovered it was all the fault of the chicken lice that infested her hens, and on the brood hen she had handled so much.
The scratching pen had moved rapidly across the sheets of paper while Norma smilingly told these stories of Janet and Natalie, but when she began to describe some of her own woes in flower gardening, she lost her smile and trouble sat heavily upon her brow. She told how she killed her best heliotrope plant by using four times the strength of poison to kill the bugs; how the dog planted his old bones in the finest seedling bed and half of the shoots were rooted out; how Janet’s hens dug up the rest of them the morning they escaped from Natalie’s vegetable gardens. The most recent complaint was the lawn grass. It grew so fast and shot up so tall that no mower was yet made that could plow through it. Norma did not add here that she had postponed mowing the lawns for more than a week, because she was so interested in landscaping the strip of ground beside the fence and making a water garden.
The story of Seizer’s sudden death and the cause of it, followed next in order, but scanty room was given to the account of Janet’s violent grief and the funeral she insisted upon having. She wrote the minutest description of how she helped ditch the bog and drain the spring water away from the lake. And how they prepared the rich soil that was going to be spread over the bottom of the lake to grow the lilies, iris and lotus, as well as other water plants. The islands, the bridges and the rocks were described and then followed the glad news that Mr. Ames thought the work would be completed in another day.
Just as Norma was going to end her letter she remembered she had said nothing of the bird houses and bees which played an important part in her flower gardening. But she mentioned the facts and said she would tell them all about the bird flats when next she wrote. As usual, she signed herself a loving daughter, then she added a postscript—to her the most important part of the letter:
“P. S.—Got Daddy’s check. Many thanks. Can use another soon, for my plants for fall and next spring planting.”
CHAPTER X
THE WATER GARDEN COMPLETED.
Farmer Ames brought another cartload of manure the next morning, so the muck heaps could all be mixed and finished that day. The scouts from camp had asked to be allowed to help the work along this last day, and Mrs. James gladly accepted their offers.
Breakfast was early, so a long day could be given to the various tasks to be done before the water could be turned into the reservoir. The cement was waiting beside a wooden trough that Sam had quickly constructed, the gravel that had been carted the day before was in a pile, and the sand for the concrete work had also been brought from the pit down the road.
Mr. Ames had selected such lumber at the barn as he could use and hitched the boards to Ben’s harness; the horse was driven over to the site for the new dam and the planks were then roughly framed up to make two standing partitions with about a foot of space between.