CHAPTER XIII. HOW^ TO BE 

 HAPPY, RAIN OR SHINE 



r* you want to be happy on a rainy day, 

 have a garden and take care of it yourself. 

 Soon you will learn to know the flowers 

 and the best of the vegetables as personal 

 friends to whom you might give names if 

 there were not so many of them. I once 

 read a story about a Spanish peasant who made 

 pets of his squashes ; he nursed and fed them as 

 a loving mother cares for her children; he had 

 names for all of them, and he dreaded the day 

 when they would be ready for the market; but 

 sell them he had to, because he needed the 

 money. 



On the day before he intended to go to 

 market he found them all gone. He suspected 

 who the thief was and, going to the market, 

 soon found and claimed the squashes. The 

 vender indignantly denied the charge and called 

 a policeman to settle the case. The officer simply 

 smiled when the peasant called his pets by name, 

 but when he produced the ends of the vines and 

 showed how they fitted exactly and individually 

 into the vine ends of the squashes, he got them 

 back and the thief was punished. 



That peasant, no doubt, was happy every 

 time it rained, because he knew that his squashes 

 were enjoying the shower. If you have plants 

 of your own, you too will come to sympathize 

 with all their joys and sorrows. It will give you 



