CHAPTER XII 



EARLY SUMMER 



Hours of work in the garden alter as days gain 

 in length, and there is so much in early summer 

 that calls for extra output of energy that one of 

 the staff is usually at work soon after five in the 

 morning. She has taken the place of our foreman 

 of the vegetable department, because he, being a 

 strong, active young fellow, was amongst the first 

 to enlist when war commenced, and although she 

 cannot be said to equal him in muscular strength, 

 yet she brings thought and intelligence to bear upon 

 the treatment of plants and has made a real 

 success of the work entrusted to her. 



So whilst young sparrows and thrushes are call- 

 ing out from their nests for food and the garden is 

 yet the work and playground not of human beings 

 but of animals, she goes about many tasks that 

 have to be done when dew is still upon the plants. 

 For instance, rows of slender young onions, just 

 pushing through the ground, are best weeded then, 

 for they can be more easily seen ; soot, too, should 

 be applied to crops when they are damp, before 

 the sun's rays are on them, and it is a good oppor- 

 tunity, when students with their often tiresome 



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