Daddy Takes Us to the Garden | Page 5

garden game after all.

Some of you have met Hal and Mab Blake before, on one or more of
their many trips with Daddy, so I do not need to tell all of you about the
children. But to those of you who read this book as the beginning of the
Daddy Series I may say that the first volume is called "Daddy Takes Us
Camping." In that I told you how Daddy and the two children went to
live in a tent, and how they heard a queer noise in the night and--
Well, I'll leave the rest for you to find out by reading the book. Hal and
Mab lived with Daddy and Mother Blake in a nice house in a small city,
and with them lived Uncle Pennywait and Aunt Lollypop.
These were not their real names. Uncle Pennywait was called that
because he so often said to Hal and Mab:
"Wait a minute and I'll give you a penny!"
Aunt Lollypop was more often called Aunt Lolly, and the reason she
had such a queer name was because she was always telling the children
to buy lollypops with the money Uncle Pennywait gave them.
Lollypops, the children's aunt thought, were the best kind of candy for
them, and perhaps she was right.
Then there was Roly-Poly, the funny little poodle dog, and once when
Daddy Blake took Hal and Mab skating, as you may read in THAT
book, Roly slid under the ice and was lost for a long, long time.
Hal and Mab just loved to go places with Daddy, to learn about the
birds, trees and flowers. They had gone to the circus with him, had
gone coasting, and had hunted birds with a camera to take pictures of
them. There is a book about each one of the different trips Hal and Mab
took with their father. They had many adventures each time they went
out, and they learned many things.
Just before the story I am going to tell you now, Daddy Blake had
taken the children to the woods, telling them about the different kinds
of trees.
Sometimes Roly-Poly went along with Hal and Mab when Daddy

started off with the children. Once Mab had a little cat that got lost up
in a tree, and once her Dickey bird flew away and it was a long time
before she found one she loved as much as her first singing pet.
"But I don't see how you are going to take us anywhere, so we can have
fun, just with BEANS," said Hal, as he waited for his father to tell
something about the new game.
"Oh, it isn't just beans," said Daddy Blake. "See here are some radishes,
lettuce, carrots, turnips, potatoes, beets and--"
"Why it sounds just like a GARDEN!" cried Aunt Lollypop, coming in
from the hall at that moment.
"It's a garden game, but we don't know how to play it yet," said Mab.
"That's what I'm going to teach you," spoke her father. "We are going
to make a garden."
"Where?" Hal wanted to know.
"In our back yard and in the lot next door. I have hired that to use in
planting our garden."
"How do you start to make a garden?" asked Hal.
"That's part of the game you and Mab must learn," said Mr. Blake.
"Now I'll begin at the beginning and tell you. I think you will like this
game as well as any you have ever played, for not only will it be fun,
but it will give you work to do, and the best fun in the world is learning
to make fun of your work. And don't forget the prize!"
"What's the prize for?" asked Hal.
"For the one who has the best little garden, whether it is Hal, Mab,
Uncle Pennywait, Aunt Lolly, Mother or myself. We're all going to
play the garden game!"
"What is the prize going to be?" asked Mab.

Daddy Blake thought for a moment. Then he said:
"Well, I suppose if YOU won the prize you would like it to be a nice
doll."
"Oh, I'd just love it!" cried Mab with sparkling eyes.
"And Hal would want a pair of skates or maybe a sled, for I think his
old one is broken," went on Daddy Blake.
"It is," answered Hal.
"So, as only one of us can win the prize, and as we would all want
something different," spoke the children's father, "I think I'll make the
prize a ten dollar gold piece, and whoever wins it can buy what they
like with it."
"Oh, that's great!" exclaimed Hal.
"Ten dollars!" added Mab. "Why I could buy a lot of dolls for that!"
"I hope you wouldn't spend ALL that money for dolls," said