Oh, my garden is spoiled!"
CHAPTER IV
THE FIRST RADISH
Daddy Blake came hurrying out of the house as Mab called. Hal, who was
anxiously looking to see if any of his corn had come up, ran over to his
sister.
"What is the matter?" asked Mr. Blake. "Did Roly-Poly come home and
scratch in your garden?"
"No. But look at my beans!" wailed Mab. "They're all upside down."
It did seem so. Along the rows she had so carefully planted in her garden
could be seen some light green stems, some of them curved like the letter
U upside down. And sticking out of the brown earth were the beans, split
open in two halves.
"Who did it?" asked Mab, tears in her eyes.
Daddy Blake looked and laughed.
"Did you do it?" his little girl wanted to know. "Did you upside down my
beans, Daddy Blake?"
"No, Mother Nature did that for you, Mab."
"Then I don't like Mother Nature!"
"But she had to," explained Daddy Blake. "All the beans I know anything
about grow that way. After the bean is planted the heart or germ inside
starts to sprout, and sends the root downward. At the same time the leaves
begin to grow upward and they take with them the outside husk of the bean
which is of no more use.
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