“Something to do with my shoes and stockings off?” stipulated Sunny anxiously. “I haven’t been wading hardly a minute yet, Daddy.”
Daddy laughed a little. He was lying flat on his stomach as Sunny had done, peering over the bank down at the water. He seemed to be having a very good time, did Daddy.
“This is something you can do without your shoes and stockings,” he assured the small figure standing in the middle of the brook. “Indeed, I thought of it because you are all fixed for doing it. You know Mother was talking about her Christmas presents last night?”
“She’s sewing a bag for Aunt Bessie,” he confided, “and Grandma is getting ready, too. But I think Christmas is about a year off, Daddy.”
“Not a year—about five months,” corrected Daddy. “That seems like a long time to you. But Mother likes to start early and make many of her presents. And a very good way it is, too. Well, Sunny Boy, I once heard Mother say that she would like to try making an indoor garden for some of her friends who live in apartments and have no gardens of their own. Only, Mother said, she must experiment first and find out what would grow best.”
“What’s an indoor garden?”
“Oh, there are different kinds,” answered Daddy. “But I think the kind Mother is anxious to try is very simple. Just damp moss and a vine or two put into a glass bowl. They will grow and keep green all Winter and be pretty to look at.”
“I could get her some moss,” said Sunny quickly. “See, those stones are all covered, Daddy.”
“That’s just what I want you to do,” agreed Daddy. “We’ll take plenty home to Mother and she can experiment with indoor gardens to her heart’s content. See, Son, here’s my knife. You must cut the moss very carefully in square pieces, and try not to break it. I’ll be digging up some of these healthy little ground vines.”