"Yes, but they are kept shut up in their yard, with a wire fence around
it," said Daddy Blake. "However you must keep watch. Now suppose we start
and pick out what crops we want to raise for the prize of the ten dollar
gold piece. I have different kinds of seeds here--corn, beans, tomatoes,
radishes and others."

"I want to raise beans!" cried Mab. "Then I can have as many bean-bags as
I want."

"We mustn't waste too many beans just for playing games, since beans make
a good meal, especially for soldiers," said Daddy Blake. "And much of the
food raised on farms and gardens will have to go to feed our soldiers. So
we'll give Mab the first choice and let her raise beans. What will you
choose, Hal?"

"Corn, I guess," Hal said. "I like pop corn."

"Well, we won't raise much pop corn," laughed his father. "While that is
good to eat it is not good for making corn bread, and that is the kind we
may have to eat if we can't raise enough wheat to make all the white bread
we want."

"Why can't we raise wheat?" asked Hal.

"Well, we could grow a little, for it would grow in our garden as well as
in any other soil or dirt," explained Daddy Blake. "But to raise a lot of
wheat, or other grains, a big field is needed--a regular farm--and we
haven't that."

"Will you take us to a farm some day?" asked Mab.