his shyness and spoke before them all.

"Flowers," said Mr. Bhaer, with a kind look. "Even the roughest, most
neglected little bed had a bit of heart's-ease or a sprig of mignonette
in it. One had roses, sweet peas, and daisies in it," here he pinched
the plump cheek of the little girl leaning on his arm. "Another had all
sorts of curious plants in it, bright pebbles, a vine that went climbing
up like Jack's beanstalk, and many good seeds just beginning to sprout;
for, you see, this bed had been taken fine care of by a wise old man,
who had worked in gardens of this sort all his life."

At this part of the "arrygory," Demi put his head on one side like an
inquisitive bird, and fixed his bright eye on his uncle's face, as if he
suspected something and was on the watch. But Mr. Bhaer looked perfectly
innocent, and went on glancing from one young face to another, with a
grave, wistful look, that said much to his wife, who knew how earnestly
he desired to do his duty in these little garden plots.

"As I tell you, some of these beds were easy to cultivate, that means
to take care of Daisy, and others were very hard. There was one
particularly sunshiny little bed that might have been full of fruits and
vegetables as well as flowers, only it wouldn't take any pains, and when
the man sowed, well, we'll say melons in this bed, they came to nothing,
because the little bed neglected them. The man was sorry, and kept on
trying, though every time the crop failed, all the bed said, was, 'I
forgot.'"

Here a general laugh broke out, and every one looked at Tommy, who had
pricked up his ears at the word "melons," and hung down his head at the
sound of his favorite excuse.

"I knew he meant us!" cried Demi, clapping his hands. "You are the man,
and we are the little gardens; aren't we, Uncle Fritz?"

"You have guessed it. Now each of you tell me what crop I shall try to
sow in you this spring, so that next autumn I may get a good harvest out
of my twelve, no, thirteen, plots," said Mr. Bhaer, nodding at Nat as he
corrected himself.

"You can't sow corn and beans and peas in us. Unless you mean we are to
eat a great many and get fat," said Stuffy, with a sudden brightening of
his round, dull face as the pleasing idea occurred to him.

"He don't mean that kind of seeds. He means things to make us good; and
the weeds are faults," cried Demi, who usually took the lead in these
talks, because he was used to this sort of thing, and li