CHAPTER III
UPSIDE DOWN BEANS
"Let's wait and see who it is, Hal," whispered Mab to her brother as theystood on the stairs.
"Maybe it's somebody come to find out about a garden," added the littleboy. "Daddy knows lots about how to make things grow, and maybe, onaccount of the war, everybody's got to plant corn and beans and things."
"I don't like war and soldiers," spoke Mab, while Daddy Blake went to thefront door. "I don't care when you play soldier, and make believe shootyour pop gun, but I don't like REAL guns. Maybe this is somebody come totell Daddy to go to war."
"I hope not!" exclaimed Hal.
When Daddy Blake opened the door the children heard some one saying:
"I guess this little fellow belongs to you, Mr. Blake. I found him over inmy garden, digging away. Maybe he was planting a bone, thinking he couldgrow some roast beef," and a man's laugh was heard. Then came a sharplittle bark.
"Oh, it's Roly-Poly!" cried Hal.
"He must have run away and we didn't miss him 'cause we talked so muchabout the garden," added Mab. "I wonder where he was?"
"Yes, that's my children's dog," said Mr. Blake to the man who had broughthome Roly-Poly. "So he was in your garden; eh?"
"Well, yes, in the place where I'm going to make a garden. My name isPorter, I live next door. Only moved in last week and we haven't gottenacquainted yet."
"That's right," said Mr. Blake. "Well, I'm glad to know you, Mr. Porter.Hal and Mab will be pleased to have Roly-Poly back, I'm also glad to knowyou're going to have a garden. I'm going to start my two youngsters withone, and if Roly-Poly comes over, and digs out your seeds, let me know andI'll keep him shut up."
"I will, and you do the same with my chickens. They're bad for scratchingin a garden, though I plan to keep them in their own yard. So your boy andgirl are going to have gardens; are they?"
"Yes. I want them to learn all they can about such things."
"I've got a boy, but he's too young to start yet. Sammie is only five,"said Mr. Porter. "Well, doggie, I guess you're glad to get back home," andhe gave Roly-Poly to Mr. Blake who thanked his neighbor, asking him tocall again.
"Here, Hal and Mab!" called their father. "After this you must keep watchof your pet. I guess there will be many gardens on our street thisSummer, and no dogs will be allowed in them until after the things arewell grown. So watch Roly-Poly."
Hal and Mab promised they would, and Mab said:
"Oh, that's a cute little boy next door. He has red hair."
"His name is Sammie," said Mr. Blake. "Now off to bed with you,toodlekins!" and he made believe Roly-Poly threw kisses from his paws toHal and Mab.
Daddy Blake had to go away early the next morning, to be gone three days,so he did not have time to tell Hal and Mab why it was that seeds grewwhen planted in the ground. But before going to school on Monday thebrother and sister saw to it that the glass covered box in which thetomato plants were soon to grow, was put in a sunny window.
On the way to school they looked in the big yard of Mr. Porter who livednext door. He was raking up some dried leaves and grass and a small,red-haired boy was watching him.
"Hello, little ones!" called Mr. Porter. "Have you got your garden startedyet?"
"Not yet," answered Hal.
"But we got tomato seeds planted in the house," said Mab.
"Yes, and I must do that too. We'll see who'll have the finest garden,"went on Mr. Porter. "How's your poodle dog?"
"Oh, we got him shut up so he can't hurt your garden," Hal said.
"Don't worry about that yet," went on the neighbor. "I haven't planted anyseeds yet, and shall not until it gets warmer. So you may let your dog runloose."
"All right. I guess I will," cried Hal, running back to the house.
"You'll be late for school!" warned Mab.
"I'll run fast!" promised her brother. "Roly-Poly cried when I shut himup. I want to let him out."
Soon the little dog came running out of the barn where Hal had locked him.Over into Mr. Porter's yard ran Roly and Sammie laughed when he saw Hal'spet rolling around in the pile of dried leaves Mr. Porter had rakedtogether.
"Roly, you be a good dog!" warned Mab, shaking her finger at him.
"I get him a cookie!" said Sammie with a laugh as he toddled toward thehouse.
"Sammie likes dogs," said his father as Hal and Mab hurried on to school.
Mr. Blake was away longer than he thought he would be, and it was over aweek before he came back home. Each day Hal and Mab had placed the box oftomato seeds in the warm sun before going to school, moving it when theycame home at noon and in the afternoon they also changed it so that thesoil would always be where the warm sun could shine on it. They sprinkledwater in the box, as their father had told them to do.
Then, the day when Daddy Blake came back from his business trip, Hal,looking at the tomato box, cried:
"Oh, Mab! Look! There are a lot of little green leaves here."
"Yes, the tomatoes are beginning to grow," said Daddy Blake, when he hadtaken a look.
"What makes the seeds grow and green leaves come out?" asked Hal.
"Well, as I said, Mother Nature does it and no one can tell how," saidDaddy Blake. "But somewhere inside this tiny little thing," and he heldout in his hand a tomato seed, "somewhere there is hidden a spark of life.What it looks like we can not say. It is deep in the heart of the seed."
"Do seeds have hearts?" asked Mab.
"Well, no, not exactly," her father answered. "But we speak of the middleof a tree as it's heart and I suppose the middle of a seed, where its lifeis, is its heart. So this seed is really alive, though it doesn't seemso."
"It looks like a little yellow stone--the kind that comes in sand," spokeHal.
"And yet it is alive," said his father. "It can not move about now, thoughwhen it is planted it begins to grow and it can move. It can push itsleaves up from under the earth. Just now it is asleep, and has no lifethat we can see."
"What will bring it to life and make it wake up?" asked Hal.
"The warm dirt in which it is planted, the sunlight, the air and the wateryou sprinkle on it," said Mr. Blake. "If you kept this seed cold and dryit might sleep for many many years, but as soon as you put it under thewarm, wet soil, and set the box of dirt where the sun can shine on it,then the seed begins to awaken. Something inside it--a germ some callit--begins to swell. It gets larger--the seed is germinating. The hardoutside shell, or husk, gets soft and breaks open. The heart inside swellslarger and larger. A tiny root appears and begins to dig its way downdeeper in the ground to find things to eat. At the same time another partof the seed turns into leaves and these grow up. It is the green leavesyou see first, peeping up above the ground, that tell you the seed hasgerminated and is growing."
"Isn't it funny!" said Hal. "One part of the seed grows down and the otherpart grows up."
"Yes," said Daddy Blake. "That's the way seeds grow. Each day you will seethese little tomato plants growing more and more, and, as soon as they arelarge enough, we will set them out in the garden."
Hal and Mab thought it was wonderful that a single, tiny seed of thetomato--a seed that looked scarcely larger than the head of a pin--shouldhave locked up in its heart such things as roots and leaves, and that,after a while, great, big red tomatoes would hang down from the greentomato vine--all from one little seed.
"It's wonderful--just like when the man in the show took a rabbit, aguinea pig and a lot of silk ribbon out of Daddy's hat," spoke Hal.
"It is more wonderful," said Mr. Blake. "For the man in the show put thethings in my hat by a trick, when you were not looking, and only took themout again to make you think they were there all the while. But roots,seeds and tomatoes are not exactly inside the seed all the while. Thegerm--the life--is there, and after it starts to grow the leaves, rootsand tomatoes are made from the soil, the air, the water and the sunshine."
"Are there tomatoes in the air?" asked Mab.
"Well,
if it were not for the things in the air, the oxygen, the nitrogenand other gases, about which you are too young to understand now, we couldnot live grow, and neither could plants. Plants also have to have water todrink, as we do, and food to eat, only they eat the things found in thedirt, and we can not do that. At least not until they are changed intofruits, grain or vegetables."
Hal and Mab never tired looking at the tomato plants growing in the box inthe house. Each day the tiny green leaves became larger and raisedthemselves higher and higher from the earth.
"Soon they will be large enough to transplant, or set out in the garden,"said Daddy Blake.
Two or three days after their father had told Hal and Mab why seeds grow,the children, coming home from school, saw something strange in theirgarden.
There was a man, with a team of horses and the brown earth was being tornup by a big shiny thing which the horses were pulling as the man drovethem.
"Oh, what's that in our garden?" cried Hal to Uncle Pennywait.
"It's a man plowing," said Hal's Uncle.
"But won't he spoil the garden?" Mab wanted to know.
"He's just starting to make it," Uncle Pennywait answered. "Didn't DaddyBlake tell you that the ground must be plowed or chopped up, and thenfinely pulverized or smoothed, so the seeds would grow better?"
"Oh, yet, so he did," Hal said.
"Well, this is the first start of making a garden," went on UnclePennywait. "The ground must be plowed or spaded. Spading is all right fora small garden, but when you have a large one, or a farm, you must use aplow."
Mr. Blake owned a large yard back of his house, and next door, on theother side from where the new Porter family lived, was a large vacantlot. The children's father had hired this lot to use as part of hisgarden.
Hal and Mab watched the man plowing. He held the two curved handles of theplow, and it was the sharp steel "share" of this that they had seenshining in the sun as it cut through the brown soil. A plow cuts throughthe soil as the horses pull it after them, and it is so shaped that theupper part of the earth is turned over, bringing up to the top, where thesun can shine on it, the underneath part. The undersoil is richer andbetter for seeds to start growing in than the upper part, where the rainmay wash away the plant-food things that are needed to make a good garden.
"But Daddy said the ground had to be SMOOTH to make a garden," said Mab."The plowing man is making it all ROUGH."
"Yes, it does look rough now," said Daddy Blake, as he came along justthen, in time to watch the man plowing. "Those long lines of overturnedsoil which you children see are called furrows."
"Could you plant anything in them?" asked Hal.
"Well, you could, yes. But it would not grow very well, and when the corn,beans or whatever you planted came up, you could not work around them wellto cut down the weeds. It would be too rough. So after the man has plowedthe ground he will harrow it."
"What's that?" asked Hal
"Well a harrow is something like a big rake," explained Daddy Blake."There are three kinds of harrows, but they don't often use more than onekind for a garden. The man will use a tooth harrow. It is called thatbecause it is made of iron spikes, or teeth, driven through some longbeams of wood. The teeth stick through and when they are dragged over theplowed ground they make it quite smooth. When I take you to the farm I cantell you about and show you other kinds of harrows or big rakes."
It took the man with the plow the rest of the day to turn over the soil inthe Blake garden, and Hal and Mab looked on every minute they had out ofschool. Mr. Porter's garden, next door, was plowed too.
When Hal and Mab went to the fence to see how Mr. Porter's ground lookedthey saw little Sammie standing near. The red-haired boy was looking atsomething on the ground.
"What is it?" asked Hal.
"Big snake," was the answer. "I don't like a snake. I'm goin' home," andhe started to run.
"Oh, a snake!" cried Mab. "I don't like snakes either;" and she turned togo away.
"Where's the snake, Sammie? Show me!" said Hal.
"See him crawlin'?" and red-haired Sammie pointed. "I guess he goin' tobite! I run!" and away he started, but he fell down on the rough ground.He did not cry, however, but picked himself up and kept on.
"That isn't a snake!" called Hal with a laugh, "It's only a big angleworm. That won't hurt you, Sammie! Don't be afraid."
"Dat no snake?" the little boy wanted to know.
"No. Only a fish worm. Don't you remember how we went fishing with Daddy,Mab?" asked her brother.
"Yes, I do. But I thought it was a snake."
Hal had jumped over the fence and picked up the worm. It was a large oneand had been crawling about the newly-plowed field.
"Oh, I don't like 'em," said Mab with a little shiver.
"Worms are good," said Mr. Porter coming out into his garden.
"You mean good for fishing?" asked Hal
"Yes, and good for gardens, too. They wiggle through the ground and sortof chew it up so it does not get so hard. The earth around the roots oftrees and plants ought to be kept loose and dug up so the air and watercan get through easier. So worms in a garden help to make the plantsgrow."
"I didn't know that," said Hal, as he put down the big worm, which at oncebegan to crawl slowly along, stretching itself out until it was almosttwice as big as at first.
In a few days the weather was much warmer, and the soil in the twogardens began to dry out. The man came with the spiked, or tooth, harrow,and his horses dragged this over the ground several times. Soon the soilwas quite smooth, the big lumps or clods of earth being broken up intolittle fine chunks.
"But it must be finer yet for some things, like lettuce and tomatoes,"said Mr. Blake. "So I'll use a hand rake."
"Can't we help too?" Hal wanted to know.
"Yes, I want you and Mab to do as much garden work as you can. In that wayyou'll understand how to make things grow. And remember the more you workaround in the garden, digging up the earth above the roots of your plants,keeping the weeds cut down, the better your things will grow. Making agarden is not easy work, but, after all think what a wonderful lot theseeds and plants do for themselves. Still we must help them."
"When can I plant my beans?" asked Mab.
"Well, pretty soon now. Make your part of the garden, where you are goingto plant your beans, as smooth as you can. Then mark it off into rows. Youshould plant your beans in rows with the rows about two feet apart, andput the beans in each row so they are about four inches, one from theother. That will give the plants room enough to spread."
"How do I plant my corn?" asked Hal.
"Well, corn must be planted a little differently from beans," answeredDaddy Blake. "You should have your rows from two to three feet apart andeach hill of corn should be from a foot to a foot and a half from the nexthill."
"Does corn only grow on a hill?" asked Hal.
"Oh, no," laughed his father, "though on some farms and gardens the cornmay be planted on the side of a hill. What I mean was that after your cornbegins to grow, the ground is hoed around the corn stalks in a sort oflittle hill. That is done to keep it from blowing over, for corn growsvery tall, in the West sometimes ten and twelve feet high.
"However that is yellow or field corn, from which corn meal is made. Thekind you are going to plant, Hal, is called sweet corn, such as we eatgreen from the cob after it is boiled. That may not grow so high. But in aday or so it will be time for your corn and beans to be planted, forSpring is now fully here and the weather is warm enough."
Hal and Mab worked hard in their gardens. They raked the ground until itwas quite smooth. Daddy Blake, his wife, Aunt Lollypop and Uncle Pennywaitalso raked and smoothed the parts of the garden where they were going toplant their seeds. Sometimes the older folks helped the children.
Next door Mr. Porter was planting his garden, and red-haired Sammiethought he was helping. At least he picked up the stones and threw them atthe fence. If Roly-Poly had been there maybe Sammie would have thr
own thestones for the little poodle dog to run after. But Roly had been sentaway for a few weeks, until the gardens had begun to grow. For Roly nevercould see a nicely smoothed patch of ground without wanting to dig in it,and spoil it.
"We'll bring him back when the garden things are larger and well-enoughgrown so he can not hurt them," said Daddy Blake.
Hal and Mab planted their corn and beans. Daddy Blake showed his littlegirl how to punch holes in the brown earth along a straight row which herfather made with the rake handle, and into the holes she dropped thebeans, covering them with earth so that they were about two inches downfrom the top. Hal's corn did not have to be planted quite so deep, and hedropped five kernels in a circle about as large around as a tea-saucer.This circle would, a little later, be hoed into one big hill of corn.
"How long before my beans will grow?" asked Mab.
"And my corn?" Hal wanted to know.
"Well, beans begin to grow almost as soon as they are in the ground,"answered her father, "but you can't see them until about a week. Then thelittle leaves appear. Hal's corn will take longer, maybe ten days, beforeany green shows. You must be patient."
Hal and Mab tried to be, but each day they went out in the garden andlooked at where they had planted their beans and corn in the garden rows.
"I don't believe they're EVER going to grow," said Mab at last. "Maybesome worms came and took my seeds. I'm going to dig some up and look."
"Don't," begged Hal.
But Mab did. With a stick she poked in the earth until she saw somethingthat made her call:
"Oh, Hal! Look. My beans are all swelled up like a sponge."
Hal looked, Mab had dug up one bean. It had swelled and split apart, andinside the two halves of the bean something green showed.
"Oh, Mab! Cover it up, quick!" he cried. "The beans are growing--they'resprouting! Cover it up, quick!"
And Mab did. Now she was sure her beans were growing.
Two mornings afterward she went out into her part of the garden beforestarting for school. She saw something very queer.
"Oh, Daddy! Hal!" cried the little girl "My beans were planted wrong!They're growing upside down! The beans are all pushed upside down out ofthe ground. Oh, my garden is spoiled!"