aid Mr. Blake. "Crows are more plentiful in the country
and--"

"I know how to keep them away!" cried Mab.

"How?" asked her brother.

"You take an old coat and a pair of pants and stuff 'em with straw, and
fasten 'em on a stick in the field."

"Oh, you mean a scare-crow!" cried Hal.

"Yes," said Mab. "Could I make a scare-crow for my beans, Daddy?"

"I hardly think you'll need it, Mab," her father said with a laugh. "Beans
are not eaten by crows. But you will have to begin to hoe away the weeds
soon, and work around your rows of bean plants. Nothing makes garden
things grow better than keeping the weeds away from them, and keeping the
soil nicely pulverized and damp."

"What do the weeds do to the beans?" asked Mab.

"Well, the weeds grow faster than the beans, and if the weeds are too near
they would keep off the sunlight. Weeds also eat out of the soil the food
that the beans need, so if you let weeds grow in your garden your bean
plants would starve. It is just the same as if some big giant sat beside
you at the table and took from your plate nearly everything Mother put on
for you to eat.

"So, in order that you might grow well and strong, we would have to take
the giant away. It's the same with weeds. They are the bad giants that eat
the good things in the soil which our plants need. I'll get you and Hal
each a little hoe to use in your garden."

Mab's beans grew very fast and soon the two green leaves on each plant
were quite large. Then other leaves appeared. By this time Hal's corn had
begun to show green above the earth, and he was anxious to hoe the dirt
around it up into hills, as he had been told he must do.

"It is too soon now, though," his father said. "If you work around plants
when they are too young you would kill them. They must be allowed to get
their roots well down into the ground, to begin eating and drinking. A
little baby, at first, does hardly anything but eat and sleep, so that it
may grow fast. Plants need to do the same thing. I'll tell you when it is
time to hoe."

Aunt Lolly and Uncle Pennywait, as well as Daddy Blake, had planted their
parts of the garden, and the land around the Blake house looked smooth and
brown, with, here and there, a little green showing.

"I know what I'm going to do with that ten dollar gold piece prize when I
win it," said Uncle Pennywait.

"What are you going to do?" asked his wife.

"I'm going to buy ice cream," said Uncle Pennywait. "I never