52 Work to be done in the Garden . 
and there it was afterwards all ready for our 
“ potting days,” when cuttings and seedlings 
required all our care. 
I once remember coming to such grief. It 
came to my knowledge, by some cruel taunt, 
that previous to my exertions the soil had all 
been sifted quite properly by the gardener. I 
was not very big then, but after that I think, I 
Sifted no more soil ! Little pegs, or hooked sticks, 
should now be prepared, for pegging down plants 
in summer. It depends upon circumstances 
whether this can be done indoors in the evening. 
When people have a basket, and keep the litter 
in there, I have an idea that sometimes it may be 
managed ; but when, on the contrary, the school- 
room floor is all strewed with scraps of stick, 
which get in the way of every one, if I were 
Miss , I think 'perhaps I might object to it ! 
You should remember now to prepare too your 
lines and measures. You can mark with ink, or 
on sticks by notches, many of the most requisite — 
for instance, one straight stick may be cut a yard 
long, and you may mark twelve inches, and two 
feet, and one inch, and two, and four, and six 
inches. All these little things come in extremely 
useful later in the year. 
