ut when you have a large one, or a farm, you must use a
plow."

Mr. Blake owned a large yard back of his house, and next door, on the
other side from where the new Porter family lived, was a large vacant
lot. The children's father had hired this lot to use as part of his
garden.

Hal and Mab watched the man plowing. He held the two curved handles of the
plow, and it was the sharp steel "share" of this that they had seen
shining in the sun as it cut through the brown soil. A plow cuts through
the soil as the horses pull it after them, and it is so shaped that the
upper part of the earth is turned over, bringing up to the top, where the
sun can shine on it, the underneath part. The undersoil is richer and
better for seeds to start growing in than the upper part, where the rain
may wash away the plant-food things that are needed to make a good garden.

"But Daddy said the ground had to be SMOOTH to make a garden," said Mab.
"The plowing man is making it all ROUGH."

"Yes, it does look rough now," said Daddy Blake, as he came along just
then, in time to watch the man plowing. "Those long lines of overturned
soil which you children see are called furrows."

"Could you plant anything in them?" asked Hal.

"Well, you could, yes. But it would not grow very well, and when the corn,
beans or whatever you planted came up, you could not work around them well
to cut down the weeds. It would be too rough. So after the man has plowed
the ground he will harrow it."

"What's that?" asked Hal

"Well a harrow is something like a big rake," explained Daddy Blake.
"There are three kinds of harrows, but they don't often use more than one
kind for a garden. The man will use a tooth harrow. It is called that
because it is made of iron spikes, or teeth, driven through some long
beams of wood. The teeth stick through and when they are dragged over the
plowed ground they make it quite smooth. When I take you to the farm I can
tell you about and show you other kinds of harrows or big rakes."

It took the man with the plow the rest of the day to turn over the soil in
the Blake garden, and Hal and Mab looked on every minute they had out of
school. Mr. Porter's garden, next door, was plowed too.

When Hal and Mab went to the fence to see how Mr. Porter's ground looked
they saw little Sammie standing near. The red-haired boy was looking at
something on the ground.

"What is it?" asked Hal.

"Big snake," was the answer. "I don't like a sn