And one day, when Jackie and Peggs were playing in the garden with
Kernel Cob and Sweetclover, the sun was very hot, so Peggs ran and got
a parasol and put it over the dolls so they wouldn't wilt.
"I'd like Kernel Cob to be a great general," said Jackie as he put up
the parasol, "and fight in all the wars of the world and lead his
soldiers with a sword in his hand and get wounded and all that. Not
very much wounded, though. Or I'd like to have him be an Admiral and
sail all around the world. What do you think of that?"
"That's good," said Peggs.
"You bet," said Jackie. And he stood on his tippy toes to look bigger.
"And I'd like Sweetclover to be a mother," says Peggs, "and have
hundreds and hundreds of children so she could give them all the dolls
that ever they wanted."
"That would be noble," said Jackie.
"It's terrible for children to have no father or mother isn't it?"
asked Peggs looking far off at nothing in the sky.
"Yes," said Jackie.
"I would rather have a mother and father than everything else in the
world," says Peggs.
"Better'n little Sweetclover?" asked Jackie.
"Yes," answered Peggs, "for I could make another doll, but you can
only have one mother and one father."
"Maybe you're right," said Jackie, "but I love Kernel Cob very much,
just the same."
"Of course!" says Peggs.
Now, all of this was heard by Kernel Cob and Sweetclover, for all
flowers and vegetables understand the language of people, but people
do not understand the language of flowers and vegetables; and when
Kernel Cob and Sweetclover talked, Jackie and Peggs couldn't hear them
because flowers whisper very softly, and even if the children could
hear them they couldn't understand them, you see, because it's a
different kind of language and they never had heard it.
Sometimes, if you are a child, and sit in the garden when the wind is
blowing, and listen, you may hear a kind of whispering among the
flowers. And if you look very closely, you will see them sway toward
each other and smile and nod their heads. Well, that is when they
whisper in each other's ears just as if they were children.
And all vegetables are like that too, only the corn has a louder
voice, because the wind loves to blow through its ears and make it
wave so it looks like a great green ocean.
"Did we have a mother and father?" asked Peggs.
"Of course!" answered Jackie, "Everybody has to have a mother and a
father, except orphans."
"Are we orphans?" asked Peggs.
"I guess we must be," said Jackie, "I heard Auntie tell somebody, the
other day, that both our parents were lost."
Just then the wind blew Sweetclover toward Kernel Cob, and, if you'd
been there, you could have heard a whispering sound, and, if you'd
been a flower, you would have heard Sweetclover say to Kernel Cob:
"Poor little Peggs!" and if you had looked very closely you would have
seen dew drops in her eyes.
"What did she do?" asked Kernel Cob, and his voice was slow, for you
must remember that it took him a long time to think, because his head
was heavy and so filled up with corn cob. But, like most people who
are slow, he was very determined, and once he made up his mind to do a
thing you might be sure he would do it, no matter what.
"She lost her motheranfather," said Sweetclover.
"Did Jackie lose his motheranfather too?" asked Kernel Cob.
"Of course," answered Sweetclover. "Don't you know that Jackie and
Peggs are brother and sister?"
"Sure," said Kernel Cob.
"Well then," said Sweetclover.
"You didn't tell me," said Kernel Cob.
"Tell you what?" asked Sweetclover.
"If Jackie lost his motheranfather," said Kernel Cob.
"Jackie's motheranfather are the same as Peggs'," explained
Sweetclover.
"Doesn't everybody have his own motheranfather?" asked Kernel Cob.
"Not always," says Sweetclover. "Why?" asks Kernel Cob.
"Please keep quiet," said Sweetclover, "I can't hear what they are
saying."
"If our mother and father are lost," says Peggs, "why doesn't Auntie
try to find them?"
"I wish she would," says Jackie.
"Did you hear that?" says Sweetclover.
"What?" asked Kernel Cob.
"That they would like to find their motheranfather," says Sweetclover.
"Are they lost?" asks Kernel Cob.
"Yes," says Sweetclover.
"Who lost them?" asks Kernel Cob.
"Hush!" says Sweetclover.
For a long time nobody spoke and pretty soon a little breeze swayed
Kernel Cob over toward Sweetclover and he said:
"Let's try to find Jackie and Peggs' motheranfather. Let us pray to
the fairies that something will come along to help us."
"Good!" said Sweet clover, and they prayed and prayed and prayed.
And just then a great wind came and raised the parasol from the
ground, and the hook of the handle caught in Kernel Cob's belt and
pulled him up with it and Sweetclover was just in time to catch hold
of him as he sailed away. And Jackie and Peggs sat upon the grass and
cried because they had lost their little dolls.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]