MAKING SEED AND FLOWER BEDS 49 
where Aunt Amanda used to keep her chickens. 
The soil there is very rich, and Timothy, who has 
turned it over to about the depth of a foot, has 
found it fine and free from stones. In the morn- 
ing there is usually sun over this place, while later 
in the day the shade covers it completely. For 
these reasons it ought to suit flowers of different 
kinds. If Joseph had not been so lucky as to have 
this strip of rich earth at the Six Spruces, he would 
have been obliged to make it rich through artificial 
means. 
Before Joseph and I came to live here and have 
a garden of our own, we never used the word 
manure. We did not regard it as a polite word. 
But we find that all gardeners talk about manure 
and the wonderful effect it has in making flowers 
grow, quite as freely as they speak of the flowers 
themselves. Arrangements have to be made for 
securing manure before flower-beds can be properly 
made. This year Miss Wiseman has sent us sev- 
eral wheelbarrows full from her pile back of the 
stable. Mr. Hayden also said to Joseph: “You 
just carry away from my place anything you wish, 
from the manure pile to the peaches growing under 
glass, only do it, my boy, when those gardeners of 
mine are asleep.” 
Now it would be very difficult for Joseph to 
catch Mr. Hayden’s gardeners asleep. Their eyes 
are too sharp, too accustomed to spying out the 
pranks of Ben and Harry. For that reason, he 
