Daddy Takes Us to the Garden | Page 9

many gardens on our street this
Summer, and no dogs will be allowed in them until after the things are
well 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
to Hal 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
grew when planted in the ground. But before going to school on
Monday the brother and sister saw to it that the glass covered box in
which the tomato 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
lived next 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
started yet?"
"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
any seeds yet, and shall not until it gets warmer. So you may let your
dog run loose."
"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 him
up. 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's pet rolling around in the pile of dried leaves Mr. Porter
had raked together.
"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
the house.
"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 a week before he came back home. Each day Hal and Mab had
placed the box of tomato seeds in the warm sun before going to school,
moving it when they came home at noon and in the afternoon they also
changed it so that the soil would always be where the warm sun could
shine on it. They sprinkled water 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
had taken 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," said
Daddy Blake. "But somewhere inside this tiny little thing," and he held
out 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
middle of a tree as it's heart and I suppose the middle of a seed, where
its life is, is its heart. So this seed is really alive, though it doesn't seem
so."
"It looks like a little yellow stone--the kind that comes in sand," spoke
Hal.
"And yet it is alive," said his father. "It can not move about now,
though when it is planted it begins to grow and it can move. It can push
its leaves up from under the earth. Just now it is asleep, and has no life
that 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 water
you sprinkle on it," said Mr. Blake. "If you kept this seed cold and dry
it might sleep for many many years, but as soon as you put it under the
warm, wet soil, and set the box of dirt where the sun can shine on it,
then the seed begins to awaken. Something inside