A Little Garden Calendar for Boys and Girls. Paine Albert Bigelow

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СКАЧАТЬ which, because of their hard shell, sprouted more slowly, even though they had been soaked in warm water before planting. But in another week they began to show, too, and everything else was quite above ground.

      Then the Chief Gardener dug up one each of the extra seeds, root and all, and showed them just how they had sprouted and started to grow. He showed them how the shell or husk of the seed still clung to the two first leaves of some of the morning-glory and radish plants, how when the little plant had awakened from its long nap, it had stretched, just as a little boy would stretch, getting up out of bed, and how, being hungry, it had made its breakfast on a part of the tender kernel packed about it in the seed, and then pushed its leaves up for light and air. He also showed them how the grain of corn and the pea stayed below the ground to feed the little shoots that pushed up and the sprangled roots that were starting down to hunt for richness. But they all laughed at the beans, for the beans left only the husk below and pushed the rich kernel up into the air – coming up topsy-turvy, Davy said, while Prue thought the leaves must be very greedy to take the kernel all away from the roots, instead of leaving it where both could have a share.

      And now another week passed, and other tiny leaves began to show on most of the plants. These were different shaped from the first oval or heart-shaped seed-leaves – real, natural leaves, Prue said, such as they would have when they were grown. Only the corn did not change, but just unfolded and grew larger.

      And so in every pot there were tender green promises of fruit and flower. The little garden was really a garden at last.

      FEBRUARY

      I

      LITTLE PLANTS WON'T STAND MUCH HANDLING

      YET the little garden seemed to grow slowly. The sun in February was getting farther to the north, and came earlier and stayed later than it had in January, and was brighter, too. But for all that, to Davy and Prue, each new leaf came quite slowly – just a tiny point or bud at first, then a little green heart or oval or crinkly oblong with a wee stem of its own. It was very hard to see each morning, just what had grown since the morning before.

      Of course they did grow – little by little, and inch by inch – just as children grow, and a good deal faster, for when they measured their bean and morning-glory vines, they found one morning that they had grown at least a half an inch since the day before, and that would be a good deal for a little boy or girl to grow in one day.

      But Davy perhaps remembered the story of "Jack and the Beanstalk" and how Jack's bean had grown to the sky in a very short time; and, of course, remembering a story like that is apt to make anybody impatient with a bean that grows only half an inch a day.

      "I think it would be a good plan," he said one morning, "to tie a rubber band to the top of each of my bean vines, and then fasten the other end higher up the window to help pull the vines along."

      And little Prue said:

      "I pulled my morning-glories along yesterday a little, with my fingers. I know they grew a tiny speck then, but they don't look quite so nice this morning."

      The Chief Gardener came over to see what was going on.

      "I don't think we'd better try any new plans," he said. "I'm afraid if we pull our plants to make them grow, we will have to pull them up altogether, pretty soon, and plant new ones. Tender little plants won't stand much handling."

      The Chief Gardener was not cross, but his voice was quite solemn. Little Prue looked frightened and her lip quivered the least bit.

      "Oh, will my morning-glories die now?" she asked; "and I pulled the pansies just a tiny speck, too. Will they die?"

      "Not this time, I think; but I wouldn't do it again. Just give them a little water now and then, and dig in the pots a little, and turn them around sometimes so that each side of the plant gets the light, and nature will do the rest. Of course you can't turn the bean and morning-glory pots after they get to climbing the strings, but they will twine round and round and so turn themselves. Your garden looks very well for the time of year. Perhaps if you did not watch it so much it would grow faster. They say that a watched pot never boils, so perhaps a watched plant does not grow well. I am sure they do not like to be stretched up to a measuring-stick every morning at eight o'clock. Suppose now we put up the strings for the morning-glories and beans to climb on, and some nice branchy twigs for the pease, then water them well and leave them for a few days and see what happens."

      So then the Chief Gardener and the two little gardeners went down in the basement, where they found some tiny screw-hooks and some string, and where they cut some nice sprangly little limbs from the Christmas tree that still stood in one corner, and was getting very dry. Then they all came up again and put up strings for the scarlet runners and morning-glories, by tying one end of each string to a stout little stick which the Chief Gardener pushed carefully into the soil between the plants, and then carried the string to the small screw-hooks, which were put about half-way up, and at the top of the window-casings. The branchy twigs were stuck carefully into the pots where the pease grew, and stood up straight and fine – like little ladders, Prue said – for the pease to climb.

      "It's just like a circus," said Davy. "The beans and morning-glories will be climbing ropes, and the pease will be running up straight ladders."

      "And while we are waiting for the performance to begin," added the Chief Gardener, "suppose you let me tell you something about the performers – where they came from, and some stories that are told of them."

      II

      HEY FOR THE MERRY LITTLE SWEET-PEA

      The Chief Gardener went into the next room, which was the library, and drew a cozy little settee up before the bright hickory fire. It was just wide enough for three, and when he sat down, Davy and Little Prue promptly hopped up, one on each side. In a low rocker near the window Big Prue was doing something with silks and needles and a very bright pair of scissors. The Chief Gardener stirred the fire and looked into it. Then he said:

      "Speaking of pease, I wonder if you ever heard this little song about

'THE TWO PEAS

      'Oh, a little sweet-pea in the garden grew —

      Hey, for the merry little sweet-pea!

      And a garden-pea, it grew there, too —

      Hi, for the happy little eat-pea!

      In all kinds of weather

      They grew there together —

      Ho, for the pease in the garden!

      Hey, for the sweet-pea! Hi, for the eat-pea!

      Hey, he, hi, ho, hum!

      'Oh, the sweet-pea bloomed and the eat-pea bore —

      Hey, for the merry little sweet-pea!

      And they both were sent to a poor man's door —

      Hi, for the happy little eat-pea!

      In all kinds of weather

      They came there together!

      Ho, for the pease from the garden!

      Hey, for the sweet-pea! Hi, for the eat-pea!

      Hey, he, hi, ho, hum!

      'Now, the poor man's poor little girl lay ill —

      What a chance for a merry little sweet-pea!

      And there wasn't a cent in the poor man's till —

      Good-by to the jolly little eat-pea!

      In all kinds of weather

      They brought joy together

      When СКАЧАТЬ