164 THE STRAWBERRY GARDEN. 



CHAPTER VII. 



CREEPING BEFORE WALKING. 



THE following clay the weeds were all forked out, and 

 lay in heaps about the place. 



The next day it rained till quite late in the afternoon. 

 About five it cleared away, and the impatient Johnny 

 trundled his wheelbarrow down the walk, to remove the 

 heaps of weeds scattered round. As he took up the first 

 pile he made a discovery. 



" That's queer ! Took root again and started to grow in 

 one night. Lucky I began to remove them. Another day 

 and the work would have to be done again. 



So it was that our hero began to gather from nature facts 

 both useful and interesting. Of course he never forgot 

 them so long as he lived. 



By sundown the weeds were carefully piled up in a 

 heap in an out-of-the-way corner, preparatory to turning 

 them into compost. This, his father had instructed 

 him to do. The latter had obtained the idea from an 

 agricultural paper, all of which goes to prove that he 

 was a sensible man. In the same dark corner, at the 

 end of the row of pear-trees, stood, partly out of sight, a 



