92 FARM SPIES 



The boys knew that their father would often say 

 things with a sober face even when he was joking, 

 and they were not sure what he would do in this case. 

 The truth is that he would never have allowed those 

 cages to be disturbed, as he was glad that the boys 

 were studying the grasshoppers. The next day he 

 had forgotten about this, and did not know that the 

 boys remembered it and were talking it over every 

 little while to find some plan by which they could 

 keep their father from plowing up the land where 

 the cages were placed. 



One afternoon they visited their old friend Captain 

 Shelby and, among other things, they told him about 

 the danger threatening their breeding cages. Cap- 

 tain Shelby knew Mr. Blake well, and was sure that 

 he was merely joking when he talked to the boys, 

 but being a wag, he tried to help the boys with a 

 scheme that would make their father keep away 

 from the cages with his plow. 



"Boys, I tell you," he said, "this is the time of 

 the year to plant turnips, and I never saw anybody 

 that liked them so much as your father. I have 

 plenty of seed and you can sprinkle it all around 

 the cages and rake it with a garden rake. You can 

 also sow a strip two feet wide on that side of the 

 cages farthest away from the fence. The seed will 

 come up, and when your pa gets ready to plow, 

 he will see the turnips and he will not plow them up." 



