38 MY TEN-ROD FARM I 



CHAPTER III. 



TAKING LESSONS IN FLORICULTURE. 



ON finding, the next morning, that my rake had not been re- 

 turned, I went over to my brother's to look for it. Meeting 

 Joseph at the gate, I asked him if he had borrowed my 

 rake. 



"Yes." 



" Well, where is it? for I wish it." 



"I suppose it is lying round somewhere, among the 

 peas perhaps.' 7 



Going into the kitchen-garden, I found the rake lying on 

 the grass, rusty and the worse for wear. Picking it up, 

 I marched home, resolved, that if people who borrowed 

 tools were so careless as to leave them out on the open 

 ground all night, they could not borrow again. The re- 

 mainder of that morning I worked in the garden as indus- 

 triously as I could, and had the satisfaction, at noon, of 

 seeing my garden again in nice order. After dinner I 

 attacked the mignonette bed. It was terribly hard work, 

 but, with the assistance of the children, when they returned 

 from school, we accomplished the undertaking, leaving the 

 plants standing about six inches apart, every way. 



That evening I cut all the flowers I could find, sorted 



