Aunt Claire was touched. “Why the darling,” she said. “I’d drink it gladly, but there seems to be just a tiny spider web across the top. I know what we’ll do. We’ll use it to water Grandma’s window box. Lemons are chock full of vitamins. It should do the geraniums a lot of good.”
So, into the geraniums went Davey’s lemonade. All that summer Janie noticed that they did exceptionally well.
Chapter Six
Buick, the Detective
JANE sat on the watching post swinging her legs and braiding clover. A small truck stopped at the Saunders’ place next door, and Ben, the handy man who did odd jobs for Mrs. Saunders, got out and lugged a lawn mower after him.
“Hi, Ben,” called Janie. “Is Mrs. Saunders coming out?”
“Hi there, Janie,” Ben called back, and stopped to get his pipe lit. “Yep,” he said. “My wife got a card from Mis’ Saunders just this morning. Says she’s coming out for a few days, and we should cut the grass and tidy the place up a bit. Don’t see what tidying up there’d be to do. The place hasn’t been touched. Not a soul in it since last fall when she was here last, but womenfolks are always drivin’ a man crazy by thinking up work. Washing windows, and cuttin’ grass, and dustin’. Land sakes, it’s enough to kill a man. And me with my back.”
Down the embankment he went with the lawn mower whirring in front of him. Janie couldn’t hear what he was saying, but she could still see the scowl on his face.
“Poor Ben,” she laughed. “If only he didn’t have to work.” She jumped off the watching post, and started off for the garden. “Before I laugh at Ben,” she thought, “I’d better get my own work done.” She weeded four rows of beans, and piled some dry grass cuttings around the base of the tomato plants. Then she sat under the mulberry tree and watched a mother wren dart back and forth feeding her brood on bits of juicy red mulberry. “I guess I’ll try one myself,” she thought. She did, but it was still tart, and not quite ripe.