! we would love to," Nan answered, for she did love gardening.
The ground was just right for transplanting, after the rain, and the
tender little lettuce plants were as easy to take up as they were to
put down again.
"I say, Nan," John told her, "you can have that little patch over there
for your garden. I'll give you a couple of dozen plants, and we will
see what kind of a farmer you will make."
"Oh, thank you, John," Nan answered. "I'll do just as I have seen you
doing," and she began to take the little plants in the pasteboard box
from one bed to the other.
"Be careful not to shake the dirt off the roots," said John, "and be
sure to put one plant in each place. Put them as far apart here as the
length of this little stick, and when you put them in the ground press
the earth firmly around the roots."
Flossie was delighted to help her sister, and the two girls made a very
nice garden indeed.
"Let's put little stones around the path," Flossie suggested, and John
said they could do this if they would be careful not to let the stones
get on the garden.
"I want to be a planter too," called Freddie, running up the path to
John. "But I want to plant radishes," he continued, "'cause they're the
reddist."
"Well, you just wait a few minutes, sonny," said John, "and I'll show
you how to plant radishes. I'll be through with this lettuce in a few
minutes."
Freddie waited with some impatience, running first to Nan's garden then
back to John's. Finally John was ready to put in a late crop of
radishes.
"Now, you see, we make a long drill like this," John explained as he
took the drill and made a furrow in the soft ground.
"If it rains again that will be a river," said Freddie, for he had
often played river at home after a rain.
"Now, you see this seed is very fine," continued John. "But I am going
to let you plant it if you're careful."
"That ain't redishes!" exclaimed Freddie "I want to plant redishes."
"But this is the seed, and that's what makes the radishes," John
explained.
"Nope, that's black and it can't make it red?" argued Freddie.
"Wait and see," the gardener told him. "You just take this little paper
of seeds and scatter them in the drill. See, I have mixed them with
sand so they will not grow too thick."
Freddie took the small package, and kneeling down on the board that
John used, he dropped the little shower of seeds in the line.
"They're all gone!" he told John presently; "get
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