daddy blake caught up an umbrella from the hallway and ran out into the storm, going around the side path toward the back yard and lot where the children had made their gardens.
"where is he going?" asked mab.
"to look for hal," answered her mother.
"where is hal?"
"he must have gone out in the storm to see what made it hail, i suppose."
"oh, if one of the big hail stones hits him on the end of his nose he'll cry!" exclaimed aunt lolly.
"well, he'll know better than to do it again," said uncle pennywait "listen to roly-poly howling!"
the little poodle dog was afraid of thunder and lightning, and every time there was a storm he used to get in the darkest corner of the house and howl. he was doing this now as daddy blake ran to the garden to find where hal was.
"he's back there—out where his corn is planted!" called mr. porter to hal's father as daddy blake ran around the house. "i saw him from our kitchen window, and i thought i'd tell you."
"i'm glad you did!" shouted mr. blake. both he and mr. porter had to shout to be heard above the noise of the storm; for the thunder was very loud, and the patter of the rain drops, and the rattle of the hail made a very great racket indeed.
when daddy blake turned around the corner of the house and started down the main path that led through the vegetable garden, he saw a strange sight. there stood hal, in the midst of his little corn field, out in the pelting rain and hail, holding the biggest umbrella over as many of the stalks of corn as he could shelter. and hal himself was dripping wet for the rain blew under the umbrella.
"what are you doing?" cried mr. blake.
"keeping the hail off my corn," answered hal. "you said the hail stones would tear the green leaves all to pieces and i don't want it to. can't mab come out and hold an umbrella, too? you've got one, daddy, so you can help."
mr. blake wanted to laugh but he did not like to hurt hal's feelings. besides he was a little worried lest hal take cold in the pelting storm. so he said:
"you must come in, hal. holding an umbrella over your corn would only save one hill from the hail and saving that one hill would not make up for you getting ill. we shall have to let the storm do its worst, and trust that not all the corn will be spoiled."
"is that what the farmers do?" asked hal, making his way between the rows of corn toward his father.
"yes. they can't stop the hail and they can't cover the corn. sometimes it doesn't do a great deal of damage, even though it tears many of the green leaves. this storm is beginning to stop now, so you had better come in."
"i didn't want my corn to be spoiled, so i couldn't win the prize," spoke hal, as he went back to the house with his father, walking under the umbrella. "that's why i came out to keep off the frozen rain. it came down awful hard."
"yes, it was a heavy storm for a few minutes," said mr. blake. "but it will soon be over, and the rain will do the gardens good, though the hail may hurt them some."
by the time hal and his father reached the porch the hail had stopped and it was only raining. mrs. blake, aunt lolly and the others were anxiously waiting.
"i thought maybe he had been struck by lightning," said mab.
"pooh! i wasn't afraid!" boasted hal.
"i guess you were thinking too much about your corn," said his father with a laugh. "it was very good of you, but you mustn't do such a thing again. now you'll have to get dry clothes on. but wait until i show you how a hail stone looks inside."
daddy blake ran out into the storm and came back with a handful of the queer, frozen stones. he let hal and mab look at them, and then, taking a large one, he held it on top of the warm stove for a second, until the chunk of ice had melted in half.
"see the queer rings inside it," daddy blake said to the children and, looking, they noticed that the hail stone was made up of different layers of ice, just as some kinds of candy are made in sections.
"what makes it that way—like an onion," asked hal, for the hail stone did look a bit like an onion that has been sliced through the centre.
"it is because the hail is made up of different layers of ice," answered daddy blake. "it is supposed that a hail stone is a frozen rain drop. in the tipper air it gets whirled about, first going into a cold part that freezes it. then the frozen rain drop is tossed down into some warm air, or a cloud where there is water. this water clings to the frozen centre and then is whirled upward again. there is another freeze, and so it goes on, first getting wet and then freezing until, after having been built up of many layers of ice and frozen rain, the hail stone falls to the ground."
"my!" exclaimed mab. "i didn't know hail stones were so wonderful."
"neither did i," added hal.
when hal had changed his clothes he told how it was he happened to run out into the garden during the heavy hail storm. he had seen the big frozen chunks of rain coming down, and he remembered what his father had said about it spoiling garden and farm crops. so hal, when no one was looking, got a big umbrella from the rack and went out to hold it over his corn. mr. porter happened to see him and told mr. blake.
the shower did not last very long, and when it was over daddy blake took hal and mab into the garden to see what damage had been done. the ground was so muddy they had to wear rubbers.
"oh, a lot of my beans are beaten down!" cried mab, as she looked at her bushes.
"they'll straighten up again when the sun comes out," said her father. "if they don't you can hold them up with your hand and hoe more dirt around their roots. that's what i shall have to do with my tomatoes, too. the fruit is getting too heavy for the vines. however no great harm will be done."
"a lot of my corn is torn," said hal. "it's too bad!"
"not enough is torn to spoil the ears," said daddy blake. "a gardener must expect to have a little damage done to his crops by the storms. of course it isn't nice, but it is part of the garden game. sometimes whole orchards, big green houses and large fields of grain are ruined by hail storms. we were lucky."
"what does a farmer do when his whole crop is spoiled by a big storm?" asked hal.
"well, generally a farmer raises many crops, so that if one fails he can make money on the others. that is what makes it hard to be a farmer, or, rather, one of the things that make it hard. he never can tell whether or not he is going to have a good crop of anything. sometimes it may be storms that spoil his wheat or hay, and again it may be dry weather, with not enough rain, or bugs and worms may eat up many of his growing things. so you see a farmer, or a man who has a larger garden, must grow many crops so that if he loses one he may have others to keep him through the winter, either by selling the things he raises, or by eating them himself."
the next day there was no school, and hal and mab spent much time in their garden. the sun came out bright and warm, and the children said they could almost see the things growing. mab declared that her bean vines grew almost an inch that one day, and it may be that they did. beans grow very fast. if you have ever watched them going up a pole you would know this to be true.
with their hoes the children piled more dirt around the roots of the garden plants where the rain had washed the soil away, and thus the bushes and stalks were helped to stand up straighter. some straightened up of themselves when they had dried in the sun.
"well, i think we are going to have some good crops," said daddy blake when he went to the garden with hal and mab a few days after the storm. "in fact we are going to have more of some things than we can use."
"will we have to throw them away?" asked hal.
"no indeed!" laughed his father. "that would be wrong at a time when we must save all the food we can. but we will do as the farmer does who raises a large crop of anything. we will start a little store and sell what we do not need."
"a real store?" cried mab, with shining eyes.
"and sell things for real money?" asked hal.
"of course!" laughed their father, "though you may give your friends anything from your garden that you wish to."
"where will we keep the store?" asked hal. "and who will we sell the things to?"
"and what will we sell?" asked mab. "what have we too much of, daddy?"
"my! you children certainly can ask questions!" exclaimed mr. blake.
"now let me see! in the first place i think if you keep the store out on the front lawn, near the street, it will be the best place, i'll put an old door across two boxes and that will be your store counter. and you can sell things to persons that pass along the street. some in automobiles may stop and buy, and others, on their way to the big stores, may stop to get your vegetables because they will be so fresh. the fresher a vegetable is the better. that is it should be eaten as soon as possible after it is taken from the garden, else it loses much of its flavor."
"but will people give us real money for our garden truck?" asked hal. he had heard his father and uncle pennywait speak of garden "truck" so he knew it must be the right word.
"indeed they'll be glad to pay you real money," said mr. blake with a smile. "persons who have no garden of their own are very glad to buy fresh vegetables. you'll soon see."
"but what are we going to sell?" asked mab.
"oh, yes, i forgot your question," said her father. "well, there are more tomatoes than your mother has time to can, or make into ketchup just now. she will have plenty more later on. and i think there will be more of your beans, mab, than you will care to keep over winter, or use green. so you can sell some of my tomatoes and some of your beans."
"my corn isn't ripe yet," said hal. "the ears are awful little."
"no, you must wait a while about your corn. but mother's carrots are ready to pull, and she has more than we will need over winter. you may sell some of those, hal."
"oh, won't it be fun—having a real store!" cried the little boy. "come on, mab, we'll get ready! i'm going to pull the carrots."
"and i'll pull the beans!" cried mab. "will you get the tomatoes, daddy?"
"yes, but you had better let me show you a little bit about getting the things ready for your market store. the nicer your vegetables look, and the more tastefully you set them out, the more quickly will people stop to look at them and buy them. wise gardeners and store-keepers know this and it is a good thing to learn."
so daddy blake first showed mab how to pick her string beans, taking off only those of full size, leaving the small to grow larger, when there would be more to eat in each pod. the beans were kept up off the ground with strings running to sticks at the of each row.
"if the beans touch the ground they not only get dirty," mr. blake, "but they often are covered with brown, rusty spots and they soon rot. persons like to buy nice, clean beans, free from dirt. so have yours that way, mab."
mab put the beans site picked into clean strawberry boxes, and set them in the shade out of the sun until it was time to open the store on the lawn near the street.
hal's father showed how to pull from the brown earth the yellow carrots from mother blake's part of the garden. only carrots of good size were pulled, the small ones being left to grow larger. the carrots were tied in bunches of six each, and the bright yellow, pointed bottoms, with the green tops, made a pretty picture as they were laid in a pile in the shade.
"now i'll pick some tomatoes and your garden store will be ready for customers," said daddy blake.
his vines were laden with ripe, red tomatoes and these were carefully picked and placed in strawberry boxes also, a few being set aside for lunch, as was done with mab's beans and mother blake's carrots.
a little later hal and mab took their places behind a broad wooden counter, placed on two boxes out in front of their house. on the board were set the boxes of red tomatoes, those of the green and yellow string beans and the pile of yellow carrots.
"now you are all ready for your customers," said daddy blake, as he helped the children put the last touches to their vegetable store.
"oh, i wonder if we'll sell anything?" spoke mab, eagerly.
"i hope so," answered hal. "oh, look! here comes a big automobile with two ladies in it, and they're steering right toward us!"
"i hope they don't upset our counter," said mab slowly, as she watched the big auto approach.
