JOSEPH SOWING SEEDS 
67 
candytuft are the only ones so far that will have to 
be sown in succession.” 
Joseph’s knowledge about seeds shows how often 
he has read “An Ambitious Boy’s Garden.” 
Finally Joseph planted the Shirley poppies. It 
seemed to me that he had more of their seeds than 
of all the others put together. He sowed them 
rather thinly and only sprinkled the earth over 
them. He has learned that they would not wish 
to push themselves up from the bottom of a fur- 
row, no matter how shallow. He planted them in 
many places, but especially in the circular bed that 
cuts off the point of the triangle. The soil in this 
bed is not at all boggy, as one might suppose from 
being so near the moist corner. As I have already 
said, it was prepared in the regular way by Tim- 
othy, and its soil is fine and light. 
I shall love these poppies when they bloom. 
Once I saw them last year, and they seemed to me 
like cups made by fairies out of tissue paper. But 
truly we shall have to wait a long time for them to 
bloom. 
The mist that has hung over the garden has 
gradually cleared and the day has suddenly turned 
as chilly as if it were early October instead of April. 
I hardly like to mention such a disagreeable word 
as frost to Little Joseph. He perhaps has thought 
about it himself, for he told Mrs. Keith that, when 
he had time, he would make a cheese-cloth cover 
for his seed-bed; but that to-night he intended to 
