used to living in the house, where they started to grow, and transplanting
made them tender. But soon they took root in their new soil and began to
grow very fast.

Hal and Mab hoed and raked their gardens. When it did not rain they
watered their corn and beans, and they were anxious for the time to come
when they could really eat some of the things they had grown. Daddy Blake
said Mab's beans might be ready to pick green, so they could be boiled, in
about six weeks, but Hal's corn would not be ready for ten weeks. Then the
ears would be filled out enough so they could be boiled and eaten with
salt and butter. Corn grows more slowly than beans.

"When will we have anything to eat from our garden?" asked Mother Blake
one day, when the Summer sun had been beaming down on the green things for
a week.

"Well, we'll see," said her husband. "Come with me, Hal and Mab. I'll take
you to the garden and we'll see what we can find."

"My beans aren't ready yet," said Mab.

"And there are only little, teeny ears of corn on the stalks in my
garden," Hal said.

"We'll see," said Daddy Blake.

He led the children to a plot of earth he himself had planted. Hal and Mab
saw some dark green leaves in long rows.

"Pull up some of them," directed Daddy Blake.