her was down in the back end of his lot, weeding an
onion bed.

"Hello, children!" called Mr. Porter. "Did you come over to see how my
garden is growing?"

"We came to tell you about Sammie," said Mab. "He's out--"

"Hello! Where IS that little tyke?" cried Mr. Porter suddenly. "He was
here a little while ago, making believe hoe the weeds out of the potatoes.
I don't see him," he added, straightening up and looking among the rows of
vegetables.

"He's out in front trying to sell tomatoes," said Hal.

"Oh my!" cried Sammie's father. "I told him not to pick anything, but you
simply can't watch him all the while."

He ran out toward the front of the house, Hal and Mab following. They saw
Sammie seated on the ground near his express wagon, and he was squeezing a
big red tomato, the juice and seeds running all over him.

"Sammie boy! What in the world are doing?" cried his father.

"Sammie plantin' 'mato," was the answer. "Nobody come to my store like
Hal's an' Mab's, so plant my 'matos."

Then they saw where he had dug a hole in the ground with a stick, into
this he was letting some of the tomato juice and seeds run, as he squeezed
them between his chubby fingers.

"Oh, but you are a sight!" said Mr. Porter with a shake of his head. "What
your mother will say I don't dare guess! Here! Drop that tomato, Sammie!
You've got more all over you than you have in the hole. What are you
trying to do?"

"Make a 'mato garden," was Sammie's answer as his father picked him up. "I
put seeds in ground and make more 'matoes grow."

"But you musn't do it out here," said Mr. Porter, trying not to laugh,
though Sammie was a queer sight. "Besides, I told you not to pick my
tomatoes. You have wasted nearly a quart. Now come in and your mother will
wash you."

Into the house he carried the tomato-besmirched little boy, while Hal and
Mab pulled in the express wagon with what were left of the vegetables.
Sammie had squeezed three of the big, ripe tomatoes into a soft pulp
letting the juice and seeds run all over.

"And a tomato has lots of juice and seeds," said Mab as she and Hal told
Daddy and Mother Blake, afterward, what had happened.

"Yes, nearly all vegetables have plenty of seeds," said their father.
"Mother Nature provides them so there may never be any lack. If each
tomato, squash or pumpkin or if each bean or pea pod only had one seed in,
that one might not be a good one. That is it might not have inside it that
stran