TODDLERS' GARDEN 61 



An emergency corner was devoted to chains, rope ends, straps, 

 old harness, ox yokes, etc., while duplicate tools and odds and ends 

 decorated wall and collar beams. On the latter were stored extra 

 shafts a grand-dad curved back and dashboard, carpet-lined sleigh, 

 and other hundred and ones. 



Circumventing the Sagging Gate. 



The problem of the sagging gate fastening was solved with a 

 Vermont farmer's device. To a heavy three-inch jagged edge pronged 

 staple with five-inch opening made of three-quarter inch iron (two 

 and a half inches above its centre round and two and a half inches 

 below the centre square) was sprung a piece of half-inch flat iron 

 about five inches long with square aperture. The round portion 

 of the iron staple being of smaller diameter than the square, the 

 flat piece turned easily, but when slipped down on the square fitted 

 tightly and held the flat five-inch fender against the gate, securely 

 fastening it. 



The Boy's Cabin. 



The shack built by the younger boy was on the same ridge and 

 had the same extensive outlook as the farm house. The boy builder 

 named it "The Cot," in honor of his grandsire's roof-tree at Fresh 

 Water Cove in Gloucester, Massachusetts, built before that "war 

 that tried men's souls." 



Two berths, a kitchen, a rear porch, a front veranda, and a 

 doorway just low enough to hit a grown-up's head, were what the cot 

 inventoried. The lusty young homestaker who built it, from sup- 

 porting posts to Boston-shingled-ridge, even if he lives man's allotted 

 years, will never again experience such joy as he had in that first 

 house warming, nor feel greater pride than when he surveyed his 

 first wash. Years after, a heedless farm hand let a brush fire get 

 beyond control, and The Cot, as well as the barns w T hich once 

 sheltered our prize Dutch belted Taurus and the rest of his kind, 

 who stood in commendable alphabetical order from Arabella to Zoe, 

 went up in smoke, a calamity that covered an entire page in our 

 farm record book. It was the only brush fire ever started in my 

 absence and insurance had lapsed the week before. 



Toddlers' Garden. 



The Toddlers' Garden meant absolute safety, entertainment, and 

 health to the two to four year old toddlers. It was forty feet square, 

 fenced and gated with close meshed wire, and screened with a three 

 foot high privet hedge ; in one corner a roof and four posts, in the 

 centre a sand pile, a bit of greensward, and a few sturdy, flowering 

 plants. Close to the house and in plain view of a dozen or more 

 windows, it gave the tots the freedom craved and the contact with 

 Mother Earth needed, and completely solved one of the most aggra- 

 vating problems in the bringing up of the child. 



