daddy blake came hurrying out of the house as mab called. hal, who was anxiously looking to see if any of his corn had come up, ran over to his sister.
"what is the matter?" asked mr. blake. "did roly-poly come home and scratch in your garden?"
"no. but look at my beans!" wailed mab. "they're all upside down."
it did seem so. along the rows she had so carefully planted in her garden could be seen some light green stems, some of them curved like the letter u upside down. and sticking out of the brown earth were the beans, split open in two halves.
"who did it?" asked mab, tears in her eyes.
daddy blake looked and laughed.
"did you do it?" his little girl wanted to know. "did you upside down my beans, daddy blake?"
"no, mother nature did that for you, mab."
"then i don't like mother nature!"
"but she had to," explained daddy blake. "all the beans i know anything about grow that way. after the bean is planted the heart or germ inside starts to sprout, and sends the root downward. at the same time the leaves begin to grow upward and they take with them the outside husk of the bean which is of no more use. the plant wants to get rid of it, you see, and as there is no room under ground for it, where it might be in the way of the roots, the leaves bring it up with them. for a time after the bean has been pushed out of the ground it keeps the tender leaves from being hurt. then the bean dries and drops off—that is all that is left of it, for the germ, or heart, has started growing another plant, you see.
"so don't worry, mab. your beans are all right, even if they do seem to be growing upside down. that is the only way they know. from on your beans will grow very fast."
and so they did. daddy blake told the children that beans are ready to eat sometimes within six weeks after the seeds are planted. the beans are not ripe, of course, and some are green, while others are yellow, or wax beans. inside the pods, which are almost like peas, are small green beans. if they were allowed to stay on the vines the green beans inside the pods would get hard and ripe, some turning white like the beans which boys and girls stuff into cloth bags to play games with, and other beans turning a sort of brownish red, with a white spot on.
"some bean vines like to climb poles," said daddy blake, "and others are what are called bush-beans, growing as peas grow. that is the kind we planted, as i did not have time to get the poles. then besides string beans, which is the sort in your garden, mab, there are the larger or lima beans, which are very good to eat. i have planted some of them, and we will have them for dinner with your corn, hal, when it grows."
"will my corn grow upside down like mab's beans?" hal wanted to know.
"oh, no," answered mr. blake. "corn sprouts and grows from the bottom. in another week you ought to see some tiny green spears, like blades of grass, coming up through the brown soil. it is then that crows like to come along, pull up the green stalks and eat the soft kernel of corn which is still there, fast to the root."
"how are we going to keep the crows away?" asked hal.
"well, i think none will come here, as our garden is in the city and so near the house," said mr. blake. "crows are more plentiful in the country and—"
"i know how to keep them away!" cried mab.
"how?" asked her brother.
"you take an old coat and a pair of pants and stuff 'em with straw, and fasten 'em on a stick in the field."
"oh, you mean a scare-crow!" cried hal.
"yes," said mab. "could i make a scare-crow for my beans, daddy?"
"i hardly think you'll need it, mab," her father said with a laugh. "beans are not eaten by crows. but you will have to begin to hoe away the weeds soon, and work around your rows of bean plants. nothing makes garden things grow better than keeping the weeds away from them, and keeping the soil nicely pulverized and damp."
"what do the weeds do to the beans?" asked mab.
"well, the weeds grow faster than the beans, and if the weeds are too near they would keep off the sunlight. weeds also eat out of the soil the food that the beans need, so if you let weeds grow in your garden your bean plants would starve. it is just the same as if some big giant sat beside you at the table and took from your plate nearly everything mother put on for you to eat.
"so, in order that you might grow well and strong, we would have to take the giant away. it's the same with weeds. they are the bad giants that eat the good things in the soil which our plants need. i'll get you and hal each a little hoe to use in your garden."
mab's beans grew very fast and soon the two green leaves on each plant were quite large. then other leaves appeared. by this time hal's corn had begun to show green above the earth, and he was anxious to hoe the dirt around it up into hills, as he had been told he must do.
"it is too soon now, though," his father said. "if you work around plants when they are too young you would kill them. they must be allowed to get their roots well down into the ground, to begin eating and drinking. a little baby, at first, does hardly anything but eat and sleep, so that it may grow fast. plants need to do the same thing. i'll tell you when it is time to hoe."
aunt lolly and uncle pennywait, as well as daddy blake, had planted their parts of the garden, and the land around the blake house looked smooth and brown, with, here and there, a little green showing.
"i know what i'm going to do with that ten dollar gold piece prize when i win it," said uncle pennywait.
"what are you going to do?" asked his wife.
"i'm going to buy ice cream," said uncle pennywait. "i never yet had all the ice cream i wanted. but i will when i get that ten dollars."
"ten dollars is an awful lot of ice cream!" said mab, sighing.
"he's only joking," laughed aunt lolly. "you children mustn't let him win the prize. keep busy in your gardens, and get it yourselves."
hal and mab did, hoeing away each afternoon when school was out. daddy blake showed them how to cut off the weeds that grew in between the rows of corn and beans. the earth was chopped up fine, for the children were told that earth which is made fine holds water, or moisture, longer than when it is in big chunks.
"and plants need to drink water from the soil, as well as through their leaves when it rains," said daddy blake. "a plant can no more get along without water to drink than you children can."
"oh daddy!" cried mab, running in the house from her garden one day. "a lot of my bean leaves have holes in them. has hal been shooting his pop gun at them?"
"no," said hal. "i didn't! i wouldn't shoot your beans, mab."
"well, something did!" cried mab. "will my beans be spoiled, daddy?"
"i don't know. i hope not. we'll take a look."
as mab had said many of the leaves did have holes in them. daddy blake looked carefully and found some little bugs on the undersides of the bean plants.
"ha!" he cried. "here is the enemy!"
"it sounds like war to hear you say enemy," spoke hal.
"well, if you have a garden you have to make war on the weeds, bugs and beetles," said mr. blake. "a bean-leaf beetle is eating your plants, mab."
"can't we make him stop, daddy?"
"yes, we'll spray some poison on the leaves, so that when the beetles eat them the poison will kill them," said mr. blake.
"but if you poison the beans won't they poison us when we eat them?" hal wanted to know.
"the rain will wash off all the poison the beetles do not eat," answered his father. "besides there are no beans on mab's plants yet. by the time the bean pods come i hope we shall have driven the beetles away."
mr. blake mixed some poison called arsenic in a can of water and sprinkled it on mab's bean plants. in a few days the beetles had died, or they went away, not liking the taste of the poisoned leaves, and mab's beans were allowed to grow in peace. that war was over. but other bugs and worms came in the blake garden, and daddy blake, uncle pennywait and aunt lolly, as well as the children and their mother, were kept busy. the cut worms got in among the cabbages, and many a nice plant was gnawed off close to the ground, dropping over and wilting away until it died. the cut worms came up out of the ground and ate the tiny cabbage stalks close to the earth.
"we shall have to put collars on the cabbage plants," said daddy blake, as he looked at some which were killed.
"put collars on cabbages—how?" asked mab.
"i'll show you," said her father.
he took some tough paper and made a sort of hollow tube around the stalk of each cabbage plant, tying the paper with string. one end was shoved down in the ground, the other being close up around the lowest cabbage leaves, until it did look as though the plant had on a high, stiff collar.
"the worms can't bite through the paper—or at least they hardly ever do," said daddy blake, "and after a while the cabbage stalk will get so strong that the worms can not do it any damage."
by this time many things were growing in the blake garden. the tomato plants had been set out, and for the first day or so had been kept covered with pieces of paper so the strong sun would not wilt them. they had been used to living in the house, where they started to grow, and transplanting made them tender. but soon they took root in their new soil and began to grow very fast.
hal and mab hoed and raked their gardens. when it did not rain they watered their corn and beans, and they were anxious for the time to come when they could really eat some of the things they had grown. daddy blake said mab's beans might be ready to pick green, so they could be boiled, in about six weeks, but hal's corn would not be ready for ten weeks. then the ears would be filled out enough so they could be boiled and eaten with salt and butter. corn grows more slowly than beans.
"when will we have anything to eat from our garden?" asked mother blake one day, when the summer sun had been beaming down on the green things for a week.
"well, we'll see," said her husband. "come with me, hal and mab. i'll take you to the garden and we'll see what we can find."
"my beans aren't ready yet," said mab.
"and there are only little, teeny ears of corn on the stalks in my garden," hal said.
"we'll see," said daddy blake.
he led the children to a plot of earth he himself had planted. hal and mab saw some dark green leaves in long rows.
"pull up some of them," directed daddy blake.
hal did so. on the end of the leaves, growing down in the ground, was something round and red.
"it's a little beet!" cried mab, clapping her hands in delight.
"no, they're radishes!" exclaimed hal. "aren't they, daddy?"
"yes, those are red early radishes. here are some white ones over here for you to pull, mab. they are called icicles."
mab gave a cry of delight as she pulled up some long, white radishes. they did look a little like icicles.
"radishes grow very quickly," said daddy blake. "they are ready to eat in about five weeks after the seeds are planted—sooner even that the quickest beans. but of course radishes do not keep over winter. they must be eaten soon after they are pulled, and they make a good relish with bread and butter. we'll have some for dinner."
and the blakes did. it was the first thing they had from their new garden, and hal and mab, who were allowed to eat a few, thought the radishes very good.
just as the children were getting up from the table one morning, to go out and hoe a little among the corn and beans before going to school, they heard a barking, whining, growling noise out in the yard, and the voice of sammie porter could be heard crying:
"oh, stop! stop! go on away! you're bad! oh, come take him away! oh! oh!"
"something has happened!" cried daddy blake, jumping up from his chair. "i hope sammie isn't hurt!"
