Pages for Laughing Eyes | Page 4

to have spring come!" said Vic-tor.
"With my red wheel-barrow I can work out in the gar-den ev-er-y day
with O-bed. He says he'd rath-er have me with him than an-y two men!
Why, I can car-ry a wa-ter-ing-pot, a lot of twigs, leaves and things I've
raked off the flow-er beds, and some-times I e-ven car-ry a whole load
of stones!

"O-bed is go-ing to teach me how to make one gar-den-bed for my-self.
He says I can plant an-y-thing there that I like. I'm try-ing to think what
I do like. O-bed says that some things come up when you plant seeds
and some come up from bulbs. I like po-ta-toes and sweet peas. I guess
I'll plant them. For a bor-der, I'd like small on-ions. Seems to me some
tur-nips and hol-ly-hocks would look well in my bed. Now would-n't
they? Sweet corn grows up pret-ty and grace-ful, I heard Aunt Hat-tie
say, so I'll have some of that in my bed with a lot of for-get-me-nots.
Aun-tie likes those ver-y much.
"Oh, I must have the fa-vor-ite flow-ers of each one in our house, come
to think of it! Let's see, what is Papa's fa-vor-ite flow-er? I guess it
must be squash, for he likes mam-ma's squash pies so much.
"Now what is mam-ma's? It must be he-li-o-trope. It's a hard word, but
I've sure-ly heard her say he-li-o-trope sach-et. It must be a pret-ty
flower, for ev-er-y thing in the clothes press has that per-fume, Ka-tie
says.
"Now I don't know all these plants I've heard folks talk about. I don't
know an-y of them. Per-haps be-fore I tell O-bed to get all these things
for me to start I'd bet-ter ask him if they'll go well to-geth-er."

GRANDMOTHER'S HOME.
Grand-moth-er Gra-ham was a love-ly old la-dy. She had a beau-ti-ful
home a few miles from the city. Her chil-dren and her grand-chil-dren
went out to see her quite oft-en.
A-my thought there was no place like Grand-ma's for her sum-mer
va-ca-tion. There was a lake, a boat, white lil-ies, squir-rels, grand trees
old-er than grand-moth-er, her-self. Then there were barns, sta-bles,
hor-ses, cows, calves, and a Shet-land pony that an-y child could ride.
A-my had her bi-cy-cle with her, and went off on it to see Grand-ma's
neigh-bors and do any lit-tle er-rands that were re-quired. If cous-in
Jam-ie were on a vis-it at the same time, per-haps he would mount

Gyp-sy, the po-ny, and ride a-long by Am-y's side. A race be-tween the
bi-cy-cle and the po-ny was great fun.
[Illustration]
But there were days when rains kept the chil-dren in the house.
Grand-ma told them love-ly sto-ries then. Jam-ie would sit play-ing
with his sol-diers, and A-my al-ways had all she could do in her
"house-days" as she called them, sew-ing to "keep her dolls in clothes,"
for "Elm Lodge" was a great place to wear out clothes.
[Illustration]
The sto-ries Grand-ma liked best to tell were "true sto-ries" of the days
when her own chil-dren were small, and A-my liked best to hear a-bout
her own fa-ther and what he did when he was a child. So one day
grand-ma told this:
GRANDMOTHER'S STORY.
"My lit-tle Har-vey was ver-y fond of fruit and flow-ers. When he was
a wee bit of a lad he liked noth-ing bet-ter than to pull the tu-lips off by
their heads and fill the crown of his hat with them. We told him that he
must not do this, for there were not e-nough of them to waste in that
way. He looked sad, but sat down un-der a tree, and seemed in deep
thought. He was-n't more than three years old then.
"We left him and went in-to the house. In a few min-utes he went
soft-ly down the gar-den walk, took off his shoes, stooped down, and
scooped up earth e-nough to fill them, and then, in his stock-ing-feet,
ran in a-mong the tulips and filled each cup full of the earth, emp-ty-ing
all from his shoes in-to them. Daugh-ter and I had been watch-ing the
child from the li-bra-ry win-dow. We crept out of the house and got
in-to the gar-den as quick-ly as we could, and peep-ing be-hind the
hon-ey suc-kle ar-bor, lis-tened while the lit-tle fel-low talked a-loud.
'Now 'ou tu-lips, dear, make haste and grow. All this dirt will make 'ou
grow, I know, and then there'll be e-nough tu-lips for me to fill my
'it-tle hat full ev'ry day!'

"The lis-ten-ers had to laugh at that. My ba-by-boy dropped his shoes
and ran as fast as he could a-way from us, 'round-and-'round, through
the damp gar-den paths! He led us quite a chase be-fore we could catch
him."
How A-my and Jam-ie laughed when Grand-ma told "tales out of
school" as