"in our garden you say!" cried daddy blake, with his head out of the window. what it was mr. porter had told their father, to make him exclaim like that, neither hal nor mab could guess. for they could not tell what mr. porter, who now was calling from down on the sidewalk in front, was saying.
"that's too bad!" daddy blake went on, as he drew his head in from the window. "i'll come down right away."
"oh, what is it?" anxiously asked his wife as he hurried to his room to change from his bath robe into outdoor clothes. "has anything happened?"
"i'm afraid there has," answered daddy blake.
"is anyone ill that mr. porter wants you to come out in such a hurry. is little sammie hurt in our garden?"
"no, but it's something in our garden," replied her husband.
"what? oh, don't tell me the garden is on fire?" cried aunt lolly.
"how could a green garden burn?" asked uncle pennywait, laughing.
"it's somebody cows in our garden—in hal's corn, too, i expect," said daddy blake. "mr. porter saw them and told me. we ought to have little boy blue here to drive them out with his horn. but i'll have to use a stick, i guess."
"oh!" cried hal "cows in my corn! they'll eat it all up!"
"that's what they will, and mab's beans and aunt lolly's green peas and other things if i don't get them out," said daddy blake from his room where he was quickly dressing.
"where you going, hal?" asked mab as she saw her little brother come from his room half dressed.
"i'm going with daddy, to the garden, to drive out the cows!"
"no, you'd better stay here," his father said. "the cows might run wild when i drive them out, and step on you. it isn't any fun to be stepped on by a cow."
hal thought this might be true, so he stayed in while mr. blake hurried out to the yard in the early morning. hal and mab looked from the windows at the back of the house but they could not see much of the garden on account of the thick, leafy trees. they could hear their father and mr. porter talking, though.
then while they waited, they heard the mooing of cows, a little later there was a rushing sound at one side of the house, and next several of the big creatures ran out of the side gate into the street.
daddy blake made sure the gate was fastened, so the cows could not get in again, and then he came into the house.
"is my corn all eaten up?" asked hal, anxiously as he thought of the prize ten dollar gold piece. "is it all gone, daddy?"
"no, not very much, though some is trampled down."
"is the whole garden spoiled?" asked mab.
"well, a little corner of it is. the cows got in among the green peas and they liked them so well they stayed there eating, not going far from where they were planted. so, though we may lose some corn and peas, nothing much else is harmed."
"whose cows were they?" asked aunt lolly.
"mr. porter says they belong to a milkman who lives on the other side of the town. they must have gotten out of their pasture during the night and then then came here to our garden. they broke down part of the fence to get in."
"that milkman ought to be made to pay for what his cows ate," said uncle pennywait.
"perhaps he will," said mr. blake. "mr. porter says the man is very good and honest. we won't make a fuss until we see what he will do."
hal and mab were anxious to see what had happened to their garden, and so, as soon as they were dressed, they went out along the paths that were made among the different plots where the potatoes, beans, peas, lettuce and various vegetables were growing.
"oh, look at my corn!" cried hal "it's all spoiled!"
"no, not all, though you will lose several hills," said his father.
"and my beans are all trampled down," wailed mab.
"never mind," consoled uncle pennywait. "they'll still grow, even if the vines are not as nice as before. a wind storm would have made them look the same way."
"and as long as both your crops are damaged, and each about the same amount," said daddy blake to hal and mab, "you will still be even for winning the prize of ten dollars in gold. that is if uncle pennywait doesn't get ahead of you," he added with a sly wink at aunt lolly's husband.
hal and mab hurried to look mere closely at their garden plots. hal found, just as he had after the hail storm, that, fey hoeing dirt higher around his hills of corn he could make some of the stalks that had been trampled down, stand up straight. and mab's beans could also be improved.
"but the cows certainly ate a lot of green peas," said daddy blake with a sigh as he looked at the place where they had been growing. "still i'd rather have them spoiled than the potatoes, as peas are easier to get in winter than are potatoes—at least for us."
the cows wandered up and down the village street until their owner and some of his men came for them. then, when the milkman heard how his animals had damaged mr. blake's garden, an offer of payment was made.
some of daddy blake's neighbors told what they thought the milkman should pay, and he did. he said he was very sorry his cows had made so much trouble, and hereafter, he said, he would see that they did not break out of their pasture.
"i saw them in your garden, mr. blake, as soon as i got up," said mr. porter. "i arose earlier than i usually do as i wanted to hoe my lima beans before i went to work. i thought i'd call you before the cows ate everything."
"i'm glad you did," spoke hal's father. "we saved most of the garden, anyhow."
it took two or three days of hard work in the blake garden until it looked as nicely as it had done before the cows broke in. even then the pea vines were only about half as many in number as at first, and they had been delicious, sweet peas, that mother blake had counted on serving at many meals.
"but i guess the cows enjoyed them as much as we did," she said. "anyhow there is no use in worrying over what can't be helped."
"did the cows hurt the egg plants?" asked aunt lolly.
"no, they didn't get in that part of the garden," answered mrs. blake. "i think well have some for dinner."
"what—cows or egg plant?" asked uncle pennywait, winking his left eye at mab as he made this joke.
"egg plant, of course!" laughed mrs. blake. "suppose you go bring one in for me, uncle pennywait."
"we'll come, too!" cried hal and mab, while the little girl, as she took hold of her uncle's hand, asked:
"is there really an egg plant? i thought hens laid eggs, and we haven't any hens in our garden."
"there is a plant named egg," uncle pennywait said. "i'll show you some. it's down in the far end of the garden."
hal and mab had been so busy with their own part of the garden, hoeing and weeding their corn and beans, that they really did not know all the things daddy blake had planted. but when uncle pennywait showed them where, growing in a long row, were some big purple-colored things, that looked like small footballs amid the green leaves, hal cried:
"are those egg plants?"
"they are," said his uncle.
"and do we eat them?" asked mab.
"surely; and very good they are, too!"
"what makes them call 'em egg plants?" hal wanted to know. "do they taste like eggs just like oyster plant tastes like stewed oysters?"
"and how do they cook 'em?" asked mab.
"well, you children certainly haven't forgotten to ask questions since your daddy began telling you things about the woods, fields, flowers and birds," laughed uncle pennywait.
"let me see, now. well, to begin with, these are called egg plants because they are shaped like an egg you see, only much larger, of course," and uncle pennywait held up one he had cut off the stem where it had been growing. "they taste a little like eggs because, when they are fried, some persons dip them in egg batter. but first they cut them in slices, after they are peeled, and soak them in salt water."
"what for?" asked hal.
"oh, maybe to make them nice and crisp, or maybe to draw out a strong flavor they have; i really don't know about that part of it. at any rate we're going to have some fried egg plant for lunch, and i like it."
so did hal and mab, when they had tasted it. they were beginning to find out that many things good to eat grew in their garden.
about a week after this some of hal's corn ears were large enough to pick and very delicious they were boiled, and eaten from the cob with salt and butter on. mother blake also cooked some of the lima beans mab had planted when she made her garden, and the corn and beans, cooked together, made a dish called "succotash," which name the indians gave it many years ago.
"what does the name mean?" asked hal.
"i can't answer that, for i don't know," replied daddy blake.
"i know what it means," said uncle pennywait.
"what?" asked mab.
"it means fine, good, very good," replied her uncle. "or, if it doesn't, it ought to. those indians knew what was good, all right! i'll have some more, mother blake," and he passed his dish the second time.
one day, when hal and mab had finished cutting down some weeds in their garden plots they saw their father carrying some long boards down to the lower end of the lot next door.
"are you going to build a bridge, daddy?" asked hal, for there was a little brook not far away.
"no, i am going to make my celery grow white?" he answered.
"make celery grow white?" exclaimed mab. "i thought it grew white, or light green, all of itself."
"no," replied her father, "it doesn't. if celery were left to grow as it comes up from seed the stalks would be green, or at least only the hearts, or the most inside part, would be white.
"to make celery white all over we have to keep the sun from shining on it. for it is the rays of the sun, together with the juices, or sap, inside leaves and plants, that makes them green. celery has to be bleached, and one way of doing it is to set long boards on each side of the row of celery plants, fastening them close up, and covering them with straw and dirt to keep out all the light.
"some farmers bank up the dirt on both sides of their plants, not using any boards, but i like the boards because they are clean, and keep the soil from getting inside the celery stalks. another way is to put a small wooden tube, or barrel around each plant so that no sunlight can get to the sides of the stalk to make them green."
"isn't it queer," said mab. "i thought celery always grew white, like we get it at the table. and so it has to be bleached. if you keep the light from anything green will it turn white, daddy?"
"well, almost anything, like plants. children turn pale if they do not get enough sunlight and so does celery. only we like pale celery but it is not healthful for children to be too white. just try a little experiment yourself. take a flat stone and put it over some grass. in a week or so lift up the stone and see what has happened."
hal and mab did this, after they had helped their father put the boards on the celery. then, a week later, they lifted up the stone which they had laid over a spot on the lawn.
"why, the green grass has all turned white!" cried hal. and so it had.
"that's how my celery will turn," said his father. "the grass grew pale from being in the dark so long. it did not like it, and if you left the stone there too long the grass would die. now take it away and in a day or so the grass will be green again."
and that's exactly what happened. the sun had tanned the grass green as it tans children brown at the seashore.
one day, when mab and hal had started out with their father who was going to show them how to dig potatoes, which is not as easy as it sounds, the children suddenly heard a yelping and barking sound in mr. porter's garden.
"there's roly-poly in trouble again!" called mr. blake.
"yes, and he's hurt, too!" added hal, for the little poodle was yelping as if in pain.
"oh, what has happened to him?" cried mab. "hurry, daddy, please, and see!"
