WATERS] SUPERVISING A COMMUNITY GARDEN 67 



very little. To adjust this difficulty we played a game — "Think 

 of the number," I would tell one of the children a number and 

 the others would take turns in guessing it. The one who guessed 

 the nearest was allowed to water first and so on. So four children 

 watered each morning, but no one was allowed to guess the second 

 time until all had had an opportunity to water. It was not 

 necessary to spend much time in games as a motive for coming 

 to the garden, but I can see that in a different kind of neighbor- 

 hood this feature might be of great value in attracting the children. 



In addition to cultivated grasses, potatoes, peanuts, com, 

 tomatoes and flowers, we had three crops each of lettuce and 

 radishes and two of beans. One day when our first crop of beans 

 was ready to pick a man came to the fence and offered to buy a 

 quart of them. Although we had not planted the garden to make 

 money, I determined to sell some of the vegetables, because other- 

 wise much would go to waste after the children took home what 

 was needed there. Some of the boys in particular were very 

 anxious to sell lettuce and radishes. On our first selling day two 

 small boys sold twenty cents' worth of vegetables, but they 

 wanted to keep the money. I thought this would not do, but I 

 told them they might have the same commission as the small boy 

 in the neighborhood, who worked for a huckster, received; namely, 

 one cent on every five. They agreed that this rate was fair, but 

 still they did not seem willing to return the money. I did not ask 

 them to give it to me, but said that they might keep it until 

 September and return it to the teacher. The next day, when I 

 arrived at the garden, I found a small boy waiting with a large 

 basket, a knift, and some twine. He told me he intended to 

 make at least thirty cents that day. This amount seemed a good 

 deal at the commission we agreed to ; but he explained that he was 

 going to work hard because he wanted money with which to fix 

 his wagon. Howard and Leonard, my boys of the day before had 

 spent their money for ice cream cones. In all we sold three dol- 

 lars* worth of vegetables. We used the money to buy fresh seeds 

 and to have pictures of the children and the garden taken. We 

 took the pictures because the children wished it. They enjoy 

 comparing the pictures to see the growth of the garden. 



We had some trouble about the children taking vegetables. 

 They had planted the garden and they could not see why they 

 should not take vegetables any time they happened to want them. 



