VIII 



APRIL 



CHILDREN'S HOME GARDENS 



The best way to learn how to plan and to make a good 

 garden, for either a child or a " grown-up," is to see the fine 

 gardens others have made and to talk with their owners as 

 one watches them at work. Come, then, and visit some of 

 last year's gardens in a Massachusetts city. First, Abra- 

 ham's garden. Never mind his last name, for he's a real boy 

 and rather bashful. 



Little Abe was a worker in the school garden, first of all. 

 His class was one of several that had separate plots. Com- 

 petition was keen. Each class was determined to have the 

 best plot. Spading was not thorough enough for them; 

 they sifted the soil, removing all stones before manuring and 

 planting. Abe's home was in a tenement, with one small 

 back yard for several families. Even weeds found it almost 

 impossible to strike root in the hard-trodden ground of the 

 back yard, amid bricks, tin cans, and other rubbish. But 

 Abe had some of the dogged persistence that enabled his an- 

 cestors to live in the cities of Russian Poland, and this 

 combined with the enterprise of the New World. He could 

 dream dreams like his ancient Jewish ancestors, too, and 

 where others saw an ash heap against a dreary fence, he 

 beheld a clump of waving corn, rambling vines, and bright 

 flowers. 



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