I can, for I want Hal and Mab to know how hard it is to make even one bean
or radish grow from a seed. Then, when they find out that it is not easy
to have good vegetables, when the bugs, worms and weeds are fighting
against them, they will not waste. For waste is wicked not only in war
time but always."

"Oh, Daddy!" cried Mab. "Do the worms and bugs and weeds fight the things
in the garden?"

"Indeed they do," answered her father. "It is just like war all the while
between the things we want to grow and the things we don't want."

"Oh, if the garden game is like war I'm going to have fun playing it!"
exclaimed Hal, while Roly-Poly chased his tail around the table. I don't
mean that the little poodle dog's tail came off and that he raced around
trying to get hold of it again. No indeed! His tail just stayed on him,
but he whirled around and around trying to get hold of it in his mouth,
and he was having a good time doing it.

"There is one of the enemies you'll have to fight if you make a garden,"
said Daddy Blake with a smile.

"Who?" asked Hal.

"Your dog, Roly-Poly. Dogs, when they get in a newly planted garden, often
dig up the seeds, just as chickens do. So from the start you'll have to
keep Roly-Poly away."

"And chickens, too," said Mab. "They've got chickens next door."