142 WHEN BERRIES ARE RIPE 



Tommy finds one, I must not go and hunt in his 

 clump for another while he is there. I must try 

 to find one of my own somewhere else. It is just 

 the same with Wild Strawberries. 



The afternoon Tommy and I went up to the 

 highway, we were going toward Philip's house to 

 see his new dog. It was early in the afternoon. 

 Suddenly we saw ever so many red spots peeping 

 through the grass. At the place I found first the 

 ground was covered with Strawberries. Every 

 time Tommy looked toward me I was eating them 

 as fast as ever I could. There were not so many 

 where he was searching, but of course he couldn't 

 come over to the patch I'd found, because that 

 would be against our rule. 



Tommy called to me not to soil my frock, but 

 I didn't leave my place for that; I went on pick- 

 ing and eating. It must have been a very sunny 

 spot where I was, for nearly every berry there was 

 ripe, while where Tommy was looking they were 

 just beginning to turn red. I saw that he was 

 finding and eating hardly any. 



Then we made a bargain. Tommy was to 

 come over to my patch if he would pick the Straw- 

 berries and give me half. He said he would and 

 that he'd feed them to me besides. I sat down 

 on a little slanting place where Blackberry vines 

 were crawling all over, and as soon as Tommy 

 had picked a handful from my patch he came and 

 sat down too. First he ate one, then he gave mc 



