AN AUTOMOBILE IS DONATED.
Norma left the basket of plants in the cool cellar for the night, but
she was up in the morning before anyone was astir in the house, in
order to get the plants in the ground before the sun rose high. She
was busily engaged in digging holes with a kitchen coal-shovel and
planting the roots carefully as Mrs. Tompkins had shown her when Mrs.
James came out and saw her at work.
“Ha! the early bird catches the flowers!” called Mrs. James, as she
ran across the grass and joined Norma at the garden.
“I planted the young sweet williams and the chicken feet, and the
pinks, all along that border, you see,” said Norma.
“Very good, but you did not entrench any manure in the soil, did you?”
“No, because I thought we would buy some bone dust as Mrs. Tompkins
said, and spread it over the top after the flowers are in the ground.”
Mrs. James advised and suggested, as Norma dug and planted
industriously, until she had all of the slips and plants that were
given her the evening before, in the ground. Then the two walked along
the grass-overgrown road that ran down to the stream. The old rail
fence on one side, that separated the house grounds from the pasture
lot, was not a beautiful thing to look at. And the strip of weed-grown
wild-grass that stretched between the fence and the badly kept road
made the spot still more uninteresting.
“Norma, since the first day I moved to the place, I’ve been eager to
reclaim this awful strip of land, so I asked Natalie to plant a few
rows of corn, or beans, or even potatoes all along here. But she
wouldn’t waste time over it, she said. Now let’s you and I beautify
it.”
“Nothing I’d like better, Jimmy. What would you suggest?”
“What would _you_ suggest!” countered Mrs. James.
“We could simply overwhelm that old rail fence with creepers.
Convolvulas, moon-flowers, clematis, and Virginia creepers, to say
nothing of trumpet vines, will glorify the old grey rails. What do you
think?”
“Splendid! And they all will grow even though it is July; the trumpet
vine and Virginia creeper may object but the others will make a good
showing in a few weeks, and before August we will have the old fence
hidden under a mass of foliage and flowers.”
“Their roots are not large, either, and they will not absorb the
nourishment from the soil which will be needed by the other plants we
will plant along there,” added Norma.
“I haven’t any idea of what to plant. The weeds have to all come out
first, and then we may find that the soil is so dry and poor that it
will need entrenching, as Mrs. Tompkins described, yesterday.”
“I’ve been thinking of it, while I was digging this morning, Jimmy,
and I thought a border of squatty old-fashioned plants such as tansy,
tarragon, rue and chervil, exactly like Mrs. Tompkins has about that
board fence that screens her gardens from the grocery yard, would look
fine. Then, between the border and the vines on the fence, we could
plant all kinds of geraniums, in red, white or pink. They will grow,
too, because they take root and will stand transplanting at any time
of the summer season. If we shelter them for the first few days, to
protect them from the hot rays of the sun, and keep the roots well
watered in early morning and in the evening, they ought to take hold
at once.”
“I’m sure they will, Norma, and I can see how pretty the effect of
such massed plants will be,” responded Mrs. James. “And way down
there, opposite Natalie’s vegetable gardens, we can add some more
hollyhocks for next year. Those few now growing there look so forlorn
and lonesome, trying to lean against the old fence.”
“We might plant some sun flowers right away—they will grow now, and
bloom before September. That will give the lonely hollyhocks a
_little_ company, and provide feasts for the birds, too.”
“We’ll try it!” declared Mrs. James, and then just as Rachel’s welcome
call for breakfast sounded over the lawn, and the two went towards the
house to wash before appearing at the table, Rachel gave a whoop and
stood waving her arms, as she gazed across the drying-lawn back of her
kitchen.
“Dem fowls ’scaped from the barn yard, Natalie, and is eating yor
greens as fas’ as they kin!” was the cook’s warning cry to the girls
within the house.
In less than a minute, four girls streamed out of the back door and
followed in the wake of the southern mammy, as she hurried down the
pathway to the vegetable gardens. Norma and Mrs. James trailed after
the four girls, but the trespassing hens and rooster were shooed away
from the forbidden ground by the time the last two in the procession
arrived on the scene.
“Now Janet, you’ve just _got_ to get some wire and keep those horrid
chickens in a yard,” wailed Natalie, when she saw the damage they had
done to the tender tops of her greens.
So, soon after the breakfast, Janet started for Four Corners to
purchase a roll of chicken wire for the runway. Belle and Frances
offered to go with her and help carry the roll back to the house.
Norma had too much to do with her flower gardening to think of leaving
the work, so she was hard at her self-appointed tasks when the Lowdens
drove up in their touring car and stopped in front of the house.
Mrs. James was indoors helping Rachel, when Mr. Lowden came along the
side road and stopped back of Norma. The first inkling she had of
anyone being near her was, when she heard a man’s amused voice asking
“How is your garden growing?”
Then Norma eagerly explained what she was doing, and all that Natalie
and Janet had already accomplished. That made her remember something.
“Oh, Janet had to go to buy chicken-wire to keep her chickens from
gobbling Natalie’s greens, so Frances and Belle went along to help her
carry the roll of wire back.”
“Where did they go for it?” asked Mr. Lowden.
“All the way to Four Corners, and a roll of wire ought to be rather
heavy before they finish this mile, don’t you think, Mr. Lowden?”
suggested Norma.
Frances’ father laughed, and said he would drive down the road and
help them with the burden. Then he went out to tell his wife and send
her in to the house to visit Mrs. James, while he went for the three
girls and the chicken wire.
The object of the Lowdens’s early visit was soon told. And they were
fully repaid for their offer to leave the touring car for the girls of
Green Hill Farm to use during the summer while the owners were
vacationing in the Rockies, by such happy faces and excited
declarations of how good the Lowdens were, etcetera.
When it came time for the Lowdens to start for the train that left
Four Corners at noon every day, Frances asked who of the girls would
like to drive with her to the station. Janet simply had to begin that
horrid chicken fence, and Natalie had to mend her broken plants and
smooth the scratched-up soil; Belle said someone ought to help poor
Janet, so Norma spoke up:
“I’d love to go with you, Frans, if you will leave me at Mrs. Tompkins
and call for us on your way back. Jimmy and I invited her to visit us
today and advise us with the landscaping about the house.”
“Sure! Jump in and I’ll drop you as we pass the store. You can have
Mrs. Tompkins all ready to come back with me when I stop for you,” was
Frances’s willing reply.
The trip was soon made, and Norma, with Mrs. Tompkins, were welcomed
by Mrs. James who was waiting on the side porch. Frances left the car
under the great oak that grew beside the corner of the driveway near
the front fence corner, and then ran to the barn yard to see what
Janet was doing. But she was soon drafted into service with Belle and
the three forgot the three floriculturists at the house, for a time.
Norma and Mrs. James escorted their visitor across the lawns to the
garden that had been planted that morning. “Oh, but you should have
placed inverted flower-pots over the little plants during the hot
sunshine, Norma,” said Mrs. Tompkins anxiously.
“I didn’t forget it, Mrs. Tompkins, but I had none. I hunted down in
the cellar, in hopes of finding some old ones, but I didn’t see a
one.”
“In that case, you should have made cornucopias of paper—brown paper
if you have it, or newspaper if there is no heavier kind on the place.
I’ll show you how to do it if you get me the paper,” offered the
visitor.
Rachel had several sheets of brown paper in the kitchen which she had
folded and saved for a need, and now Norma was handed it, while Rachel
felt that this gift privileged her to join the flower growers and
listen to their talk. But she soon wearied of it and started for the
barn yard to find if the company there was more interesting.
Mrs. Tompkins formed cones of the papers, some larger, some smaller,
according to the size of the plant to be covered, and when these cones
were placed in an inverted manner over the plants they were secured to
the ground by means of sticks or stones placed at the edge of the
paper.
The three then walked over to the strip of weeds that grew all along
the fence-line, and Norma explained what she had suggested in flowers,
for that strip. Mrs. Tompkins exchanged looks with Mrs. James, and
said, smilingly: “Our flower scout is improving wonderfully in the few
lessons she’s had.”
Shouts and laughter reaching them from the farm yard now attracted the
visitor’s attention, and she looked over in that direction. Norma
explained what was going on there: “Janet has to fence her chickens in
because they scratch up Nat’s garden and eat the tops from her
greens.”
Mrs. Tompkins laughed, but she said: “I wouldn’t want a garden of any
kind, if I had no living creatures about it to make it companionable.
To me, the bees, birds, pigeons and chickens, yes, even cats and dogs,
help make my gardens more lovable, for these domestic animals love
flowers and sweet-smelling things just the same as we do.”
“I never looked at it in that light,” murmured Norma.
Just then a shout for Mrs. James came ringing across the farm from the
direction of the barn yard, so that lady hastily excused herself and
ran down the lane to see what was wanted of her. She did not return to
Norma or Mrs. Tompkins, so they walked on and talked of their favorite
subject—flower culture.
“I have watched many times, and do you know, Norma, not a cat or dog,
or other creatures that wandered into my gardens, ever ruined a plant
for me! I have seen them scoop out a slight depression in the soft
soil to sleep in. But they always curled up in the little hole and
never disturbed the roots or vines. Then when they had had their nap
they would get up and walk silently away. I generally smoothed out the
spot and that was all the trouble it gave me.”
“Mrs. Tompkins, it must be your sublime faith that the creatures won’t
injure your flowers, that keeps them from doing any harm,” remarked
Norma. “Just like Daniel when he was in the lion’s den, you know. If
he had wavered and thought to himself: ‘Oh, I wonder if God really
will bother to keep the lions’ jaws closed’ maybe he wouldn’t have
come out of that experience quite so remarkably.”
Mrs. Tompkins laughed heartily at the comparison, and added: “I see
you know something of the Scriptures, Norma, so I can say, and you
will understand, the line that goes thus: ‘Faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’ I trust to my
faith in _good_ creatures and hope that they will respond to my loving
faith in them, and sure enough! the evidence of such things generally
appears to me.”
“Why can’t I encourage the same sort of faith in my ideals for a
garden, Mrs. Tompkins? I know a garden of flowers _must_ be good
because flowers are beautiful things created by God. So I can hold to
my faith until I see the evidence appear, eh?”
Mrs. Tompkins smiled and nodded, then added: “I want to say, that in
speaking of entertaining the little feathered angel birds, in my
flower garden, I also entertain them in beneficent ways unseen by me.
For bees and birds are necessary and valuable for your flowers. The
bees have panniers on their legs where they carry the pollen to the
hives, and many a tiny bit of pollen falls from these well-packed
panniers to fall into the heart of the blossom from which the bee is
gathering nectar. In this bit of pollen lies the secret of the
fertilization of other flowers.
“Can you picture my flower garden without the darling humming-birds
and bees that buzz and sing about it all day long?”
“I wish we could coax all the different birds in the county to live on
the farm. I’d love it!” declared Norma fervently.
“You can have them, if you will work to attract them,” was Mrs.
Tompkins’s reply.
“Jimmy said that she never saw so many different kinds of wild song
birds in any place, as she has seen since coming to Green Hill. She
told me that the only regret is that she has not built any bird houses
to offer them for homes.”
“Why lose any more time, then? Begin to fix up some bird houses at
once, and you will see what a difference they will make about your
place.”
“I thought we would have to send to the city and buy the houses,”
ventured Norma.
“Goodness, no! You can use empty starch boxes such as Si throws on the
woodpile, or cheese boxes, or even soap boxes, if they are not too
large and heavy. You can fix partitions inside, and then nail perches
on the outside under the entrances, then, last of all, you nail the
cover on the box again and paint it. If you want a real fancy house,
get some bark from a fallen tree and nail it on the outside with wire
brads.”
“I’ll get the girls to help me and we’ll do it at once,” promised
Norma eagerly. “You ask your husband to save some of those boxes for
us, will you, Mrs. Tompkins?”
“I certainly will! and now that I come to think of it, I saw Si empty
another cheese box this morning. That makes two you girls can have,
for I saved one a few weeks ago in case any of the neighbors asked me
for one to use for the birds.”
“How do you make that kind, Mrs. Tompkins?” asked Norma.
“For wrens you always cut a small hole so the sparrows can’t crawl in
and annoy them. A wren is touchy and won’t live in a nest where she is
annoyed by her enemy, the sparrow. A bluebird or a martin needs a
doorway a little larger than the wren’s. And the robin, or the blue
jay, or an oriole, needs the door still larger. A cat bird, and birds
of his size, needs the largest holes to their nests, of any of these
others.
“So you cut the hole according to the bird you expect to rent your
house to. The more modern improvements you offer a tenant the sooner
you rent the apartment. Most birds like a cozy home, with enough room
to build a good substantial nest therein, but not so large that it
will feel like poking in the corners every night to make sure there
are no tramps lurking about. The tenants like a safe perch upon which
they can rest when they alight before entering their home. And they
even like a little promenade deck in front of their house, so the
mother can exercise now and then, and still have safety and security
from cats, or fighting birds that disagree with the smaller ones. A
roof to shed water and shade the doorway is also a boon to the tenant;
then give them a fine bird-bath near the house, and feeding grounds
throughout the cold weather and you will be amazed at the beautiful
song birds you can secure for your houses.”
“Shall we nail the boxes to the tree trunks?” asked Norma.
“Better not, as cats can climb a tree and will frighten the birds even
if they do not kill them. I should swing the house by means of a stout
wire, from a bough, or nail the house to a strong slat and then nail
the slat to the main trunk, or large bough of the tree. If you place a
bird house under the eaves of your house, you can use the slat and
nail it securely to the ledge of the window, but keep the house out
towards the eaves where it will be far enough away from the window to
insure privacy to the birds.”
“Dear me, I wish Janet had thought of keeping bees. I will speak to
her about it, and if she doesn’t try it, I will do it myself. I want
bees, and birds, and butterflies, and everything, to enjoy my flowers
as much as I shall myself,” sighed Norma.
Mrs. Tompkins was too wise to suggest that Norma had better try and
grow a flower garden before she planned for the friendly visitors to
such a garden. But she said, _apropos_ of bees: “I’m looking for a
swarm of my bees almost any day, now. If you girls decide to start a
bee-hive, just send me word and I’ll keep the new swarm for you.”
“Oh, do! Even if the others won’t, I’m going to have them for my
garden flowers,” cried Norma eagerly.
At this moment, Frances called to Mrs. Tompkins: “I’ve got to rush to
the store for more wire nails and an extra hammer, for Janet’s work.
If you are ready to go home, I’ll drive you back.”
“Oh, must you go so soon?” asked Norma when Mrs. Tompkins nodded her
head at Frances.
“Soon! Why, child, I have been here more than an hour.”
“Well, then, I’ll jump in with you and get those boxes for the bird
houses,” declared Norma.
So the boxes were found and placed in the automobile while Frances was
waiting for the nails and hammer at Four Corners’ general store. When
Norma came out of the house, where she had gone at Mrs. Tompkins’s
invitation, she carried a bottle of tiny brown seeds and several
pasteboard boxes. One small pill box that had held pepsin pellets at
one time now had six precious nasturtium seeds in it. Another box held
a quantity of morning glory seeds, and still another had sun flower
seeds in it. A paper packet held sweet pea seeds and these Norma was
told to soak in warm water for quickest results after planting.
Frances was ready to start back to the farm just about the time when
Norma came out with the seeds in her hands. As she turned to wave a
hand at her generous friend, the latter said: “Remember to soak all
the seeds but the nasturtiums. They are better dry, when planted. And
plant them in the morning after they have soaked through the night.”
The tonneau was piled high with starch boxes, two round cheese boxes
and other small boxes that would make good bird houses, so Norma sat
in front beside Frances and chattered of all the birds they would soon
have about Green Hill, once the apartments were ready for their
occupancy.
When she got home, the boxes were piled beside the side door leading
to the cellar, and then Norma carried her seeds indoors to soak, as
Mrs. Tompkins had advised her to do. The small pill box containing the
six rare nasturtium seeds was left on the living room table while
Norma soaked the other seeds in cups filled with warm water. These
cups were placed under the steps of the porch to be out of harm’s way.
Norma now picked up the pill box and wondered where to keep it for the
night. It might be damp under the porch steps, and the seeds might be
spilled if the box was left on the living room table. So she decided
to hide it in the pantry closet where the china was kept. She would
put it on a shelf that she could easily reach, and shove it against
the side wall just inside the door that opened to the dining room. So
here the box was left.
Nothing more could be done that evening in the flower gardens, so
Norma joined the other girls when they came from the barn yard talking
about the fence they had built. As Janet had forgotten the pig’s extra
meal of milk that morning, the milk had soured, and Rachel had made
sour-milk pancakes of it for supper.
These were a favorite dish with all the girls, and Rachel mixed an
extra lot of batter. Smeared thickly with butter and with white clover
honey poured over them, they were so delicious that the hungry girls
did full justice to them. But Rachel still had so much batter left,
after the girls had finished supper, that she baked it into cakes for
herself. She, too, was overfond of sour-milk pancakes with pure honey
on them.
She ate and ate, until she could hardly breathe, and then she sighed
because the last pancake had to be put away on the pantry shelf. She
sought for a safe corner in which to hide it from Mrs. James’s
searching eye, for fear of being laughed at for saving it for her
breakfast.
In pushing the plate in the corner, Rachel found the pill box, and
always having enough curiosity to cause her useless trouble, she
carried the box to the kitchen window to see what it said on the
cover. Then she carried it back and placed it on the shelf.
The supper dishes were washed and put away where they belonged, but
Rachel found it hard to finish her tasks, because she was taken with
such indigestion pains. She drank a glass of hot water, hoping to
relieve her difficulty in breathing. But it got worse. She sat down
every few moments until a cramp had passed, and every time she began
again to do the dishes, she had to gasp for breath.
Suddenly she remembered the pill box that said: “Pepsin pills for
indigestion.”
“Dat means despepsy like what I got so bad,” muttered Rachel, going
for the box.
She brought it out to the daylight and laboriously read the
directions: “Take two pills, if attack is severe. If not relieved,
repeat dose in half hour.”
“Humph! I’se got it so bad, I reckon I’d better take all foh at one
time—like it say, repeat dose.” So Rachel took four of the six rare
seeds. She replaced the box on the shelf and in a short time the gas
disappeared and she felt better. She sat on the stoop for a time to
enjoy the cool breezes, and then finding she was feeling as well as
ever again, she walked out on the lawn to meet the girls who had spent
the evening at Solomon’s Seal Camp.
They told Rachel all about the stories of the stars and the legends of
the constellations that the scouts had told them, and so interested in
some of these myths was Rachel that she forgot to speak of the pills
she had taken from the box in the pantry.
Early before breakfast the next morning, Norma and Mrs. James were
planting the seeds which had been soaked through the night. They
planted them where the soil was richest, and planned to dig up the
tiny shoots when they came up, and transplant them over by the fence
which would be all ready for the vines by that time.
“Now I’ll go and get the wonderful nasturtium seeds, Jimmy,” said
Norma, when the swollen wet seeds were all planted.
She ran to the pantry and got the box. She ran out again with it in
her hand and did not open it until she stopped in front of Mrs. James.
Then she carefully lifted the cover from the box to show her companion
the six queer shrivelled seeds that would bring forth such beauty. To
her amazement she saw but two.
“I know Mrs. Tompkins gave me six!” she exclaimed.
“You didn’t drop any on your way over here, did you?”
“No, I never removed the lid until I got here.”
“That’s very strange! I wonder if there are any field mice in the
house. I’ve heard they love nasturtium seeds,” said Mrs. James.
“Jimmy, if a mouse got the seeds, wouldn’t the cover be off, or a hole
eaten into the box?”
“Yes, of course it would! And the cover was on when you picked it up?”
“It was on exactly as I left it last night, and just as I showed it to
you this minute.”
It was a mystery, but a sad one for Norma as she had been so proud of
those six Oriental nasturtium seeds. The main subject of conversation
at the breakfast table that morning was the strange disappearance of
four seeds from the pill box. Rachel brought in another plate of toast
while Norma described minutely the place on the shelf where she had
hidden the box the night before.
Rachel thumped the plate on the table and dropped into an empty arm
chair. Her eyes bulged and her mouth sagged open in dismay. Finally
she gasped in awe-struck tones:
“Mis’ James, what yoh think will happen to me ef I swallowed dem foh
pills?”
“What four pills, Rachel?” was the puzzled reply.
“Why dem foh seed pills in dat dyspepsy box. I got such cramps las’
night, I had to take somefin and dat was all I could fin’.”
The girls almost had hysterics from laughing at her confession, and
Janet managed to say: “Norma will have to pour water down your throat
every day before sun-up, and every evening after sunset, Rachel, to
make the vine grow luxuriantly.”
“Janet—yoh don reely mean dat, does yoh?” was Rachel’s dread question.
“Sure, Rachel! You’ll have the finest Oriental vine coming out of your
mouth in a few days that Norma ever saw!”
But Mrs. James hushed Janet’s foolish teasing and assured Rachel that
she would feel no ill effects at all, from the wrong dose of seeds.