d finished the uniform for Jackie's soldier and a
hat of newspaper with a great plume of cornsilk and a lot of medals
which were cut from the gold leaf that comes on a card of buttons. And
when they were all sewed on the jacket, he cut out a sword from the
gold leaf and made hands and feet from the corn husk. And he colored
the eyes with black ink and the lips with red, and, much before you
could say "Crickety," the soldier was all finished.

"What'll we call him?" asked Jackie.

And they thought, and thought, and thought.

"I have it!" said Jackie.

"What?" asked Peggs.

"We'll call him Kernel Cob," says Jackie.

"Goodie!" says Peggs, clapping her hands with glee.

And you will see what wonderful dolls they were, and what wonderful
things they did, and how they helped Jackie and Peggs to find ... but
never mind.

You will see.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER II

And one day, when Jackie and Peggs were playing in the garden with
Kernel Cob and Sweetclover, the sun was very hot, so Peggs ran and got
a parasol and put it over the dolls so they wouldn't wilt.

"I'd like Kernel Cob to be a great general," said Jackie as he put up
the parasol, "and fight in all the wars of the world and lead his
soldiers with a sword in his hand and get wounded and all that. Not
very much wounded, though. Or I'd like to have him be an Admiral and
sail all around the world. What do you think of that?"

"That's good," said Peggs.

"You bet," said Jackie. And he stood on his tippy toes to look bigger.

"And I'd like Sweetclover to be a mother," says Peggs, "and have
hundreds and hundreds of children so she could give them all the dolls
that ever they wanted."

"That would be noble," said Jackie.

"It's terrible for children to have no father or mother isn't it?"
asked Peggs looking far off at nothing in the sky.

"Yes," said Jackie.

"I would rather have a mother and father than everything else in the
world," says Peggs.

"Better'n little Sweetclover?" asked Jackie.

"Yes," answered Peggs, "for I could make another doll, but you can
only have one mother and one father."

"Maybe you're right," said Jackie, "but I love Kernel Cob very much,
just the same."

"Of course!" says Peggs.

Now, all of this was heard by Kernel Cob and Sweetclover, for all
flowers and vegetables understand the language of people, but people
do not understand the language of flowers and vegetables; and when
Kernel Cob and Sweetclover talk