The plant wants to get rid of it, you see, and as
there is no room under ground for it, where it might be in the way of the
roots, the leaves bring it up with them. For a time after the bean has
been pushed out of the ground it keeps the tender leaves from being hurt.
Then the bean dries and drops off--that is all that is left of it, for the
germ, or heart, has started growing another plant, you see.
"So don't worry, Mab. Your beans are all right, even if they do seem to be
growing upside down. That is the only way they know. From on your beans
will grow very fast."
And so they did. Daddy Blake told the children that beans are ready to eat
sometimes within six weeks after the seeds are planted. The beans are not
ripe, of course, and some are green, while others are yellow, or wax
beans. Inside the pods, which are almost like peas, are small green beans.
If they were allowed to stay on the vines the green beans inside the pods
would get hard and ripe, some turning white like the beans which boys and
girls stuff into cloth bags to play games with, and other beans turning a
sort of brownish red, with a white spot on.
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