ting from the hose. So he attached it to the faucet and
let Hal and Mab take turns sprinkling. As the drops fell on the thirsty
ground there floated up a most delicious smell, like the early spring
rain, which helps Mother Nature to awaken the sleeping grass and flowers.

"I guess my corn is wet enough," said Hal, after a bit. He had only been
sprinkling a little while when he heard one of his boy friends calling him
from the street in front.

"Oh, your corn isn't half wet enough," laughed Daddy Blake. "It is almost
better not to water the garden at all than not to give it enough, for it
only hardens the dirt on top. Give the corn a good soaking, just as if it
had rained hard. A good watering for the garden means about two quarts of
water to every square foot in your plots. Don't be afraid of the water.
Your plants will do so much better for it. But don't spray them too
heavily, so the dirt is washed away. Let the hose point up in the air, and
then the drops will fall like rain."

Hal kept the hose longer, giving his corn a good wetting, and he could
almost see the green stalks stand up straighter when he had finished. They
were refreshed, just as a tired horse is made to feel, better, after a hot
day in the streets, when he has a cool drink and is sprinkled with the
hose.

"Roly, get out the way or you'll be all wet!" cried Mab, as the little
poodle dog ran around her beans when she was watering them.

"Bow-wow!" barked Roly, just as if he said he didn't care.

"Well, if you want to get wet--all right!" laughed Mab. "Here it comes!"

She pointed the hose straight at Roly and in a second he was wet through.

"Ki-yi! Ki-yi! Ki-yi!" he yelped as he ran out of the garden. "Bow-wow!
Ki-yi!"

"Well, it will cool him off, and I guess he wanted it after all," said
Daddy Blake. "But Roly is a good little dog. He only dug once in the
garden since he came back, but I tapped him on the end of his nose with my
finger, and scolded him, and he hasn't done it since."

The next day Daddy Blake took Hal and Mab to the garden again, and showed
them how he was building little wooden frames under his tomatoes to keep
the red vegetables off the ground where they might lie in the mud and sand
and get dirty.

"The frames help to hold up the vines so they will not break when the
tomatoes get too heavy for them," said Mr. Blake.

"Plants have lots of trouble," said Hal. "You have to put their seeds in
the ground, keep the weeds awa