254 MARY'S GARDEN AND HOW IT GREW 



"Certainly, certainly," said he, ducking under the 

 top rail of the fence. "You have done well. Now," 

 he began, when the sods were safely on the garden 

 side of the fence, "now we make the layer-cake. 

 You see this pile of manure we have here? Yes? 

 Well, we do thus : first a layer of manure, then a 

 layer of sods, then another layer of manure. That is 

 the way it is built." 



"What are the sods good for?" asked Randolph 

 Findlayson. 



"When the grass becomes rotted and dead, it is 

 good food for the plants ; but we must be sure it is 

 dead. The earth also becomes well mixed with the 

 manure ; it is then more conveniently digested. 

 Many kinds of garden litter are of use in the com- 

 post heap. It is in a garden like the pot-au-feu in the 

 kitchen." 



"What is pot-au-feu f " asked Randolph Findlay- 

 son. 



"It is the foundation of many good dishes. 



"That is well done," he declared, after surveying 

 critically the square heap. 



"Looks like a funeral pyre," commented Mary, 

 "the kind the Greeks used to have. I 've seen them 

 lots of times in pictures. Only we ought to have 



