CHAPTER IX
SAMMIE PLANTS TOMATOES
"Look at the lovely vegetables!" exclaimed one of the ladies in theautomobile, as she glanced at what Hal and Mab had spread out on theirstore counter--the old barn door set on the two boxes.
"Are they nice and fresh, children?" asked the second lady, as she put afunny pair of spectacles, on a stick, up to her nose, and looked at thestring beans through the shiny glass.
"Oh, yes'm, they're very fresh!" answered Hal. "Daddy and us just picked'em from our garden."
"We have more than we can eat, and mother hasn't time to can thetomatoes," explained Mab, for their father had left them alone, to say anddo as they thought best.
"They certainly look nice," went on the first lady, "And how well thechildren have arranged them."
"Like a picture," added the other. "See how pretty the red, green andyellow colors show. I must have some tomatoes and beans."
"And I want some of those carrots. They say carrots make your eyesbright."
Hal and Mab thought the ladies eyes were bright enough, especially whenthe sun shone and glittered on the funny stick-spectacles. The automobilehad stopped and the chauffeur got down off the front seat behind thesteering wheel and walked toward the children's new vegetable store.
"How much are your tomatoes?" asked the lady who had first spoken.
"Eight cents a quart," answered Hal, his father telling him to ask thatprice, which was what they were selling for at the store. "And they'rejust picked," added the little boy.
"I can see they are," spoke the lady. "I'll take three quarts, and you maykeep the extra penny for yourselves," she added as she handed Hal a brighttwenty-five-cent piece.
Hal and his sister were so excited by this, their first sale, and atgetting real money, that they could hardly put the three quarts of redtomatoes in the paper bags Daddy Blake had brought for them from thestore. They did spill some, but as the tomatoes fell on the soft grassthey were not broken.
"I want some beans and carrots," said the other lady, and the chauffeurhelped Hal and Mab put them in bags, and brought the money back to thechildren. The beans and carrots were sold for thirty cents, so that Haland Mab now have fifty-five cents for their garden stuff.
"Isn't it a lot of money!" cried Hal, when the auto had rolled away downthe street, and he and his sister looked at the shining coins.
"Well get rich," exclaimed Mab, gleefully.
A little later a lady in a carriage stopped to buy some beans, and afterthat a man, walking along the street, bought a quart of tomatoes. Later ona little girl and her mother stopped and looked at the carrots, buying onebunch.
"I want my little girl to eat them as they are good for her," said thelady, "but she says she doesn't like them, though I boil them in milk forher."
"But they don't taste like anything," complained the little girl.
"Our carrots are nice and sweet," said Mab. "You'll like these. My brotherand I eat them."
"They look nice and yellow," said the little girl. "Maybe I will likethese."
Hal and Mab had sold several boxes of beans and tomatoes and about half adozen bunches of carrots, in an hour, and now they began putting theirstore counter in order again, for it was rather untidy. Daddy Blake hadtold them to do this.
Once or twice the children could not make the right change when customersstopped to buy things, but Aunt Lolly was near at hand, on the porch, andshe came to their aid, so there was no trouble.
It was rather early in the morning when Hal and Mab started their store,and by noon they had sold everything, and had taken in over two dollars in"real" money.
"Isn't it a lot!" cried Hal, as he saw the pile of copper, nickle andsilver coins in the little box they used for a cash drawer.
"A big pile," answered Mab. "We'll sell more things to-morrow."
"No, I think not," spoke Daddy Blake, coming along just then. "We must nottake too much from our garden to sell. But you have done better than Ithought you would. Over two dollars!"
"What shall we do with it?" asked Hal.
"Well, you may have some to spend, but we'll save most of it," his fatheranswered. "This is the first money you ever earned from your garden, and Iwant you to think about it. Just think what Mother Nature did for you,with your help, of course.
"In the ground you planted some tiny seeds and now they have turned intomoney. No magician's trick could be more wonderful than that. This moneywill pay for almost all the seed I bought for the garden. Of course ourwork counts for something, but then we have to work anyhow."
Hal and Mab began to understand what a wonderful earth this of ours is,and how much comes out of the brown soil which, with the help of the air,the rain and sunlight, can take a tiny seed, no larger than the head of apin, and make from it a great, big green tomato vine, that blossoms andthen has on it red tomatoes, which may be eaten or sold for money. And thebeans and carrots did the same, each one coming from a small seed.
Sammie Porter came out two or three times and watched Hal and Mab sellingthings at their vegetable store. The little boy seemed to be wonderingwhat was going on, and Hal and Mab told him as well as they could.
"Sammie goin' to have a 'mato store," he said when the two Blake childrenhad sold all their things, and were moving their empty boxes and door intothe barn. "Me goin' to sell 'matoes."
"I wonder what he will do?" said Mab.
"Maybe he'll take a lot of things from his father's garden," suggestedHal. "We better tell him not to."
"Well, Mr. Porter is working among his potatoes so I guess Sammie can't domuch harm," Mab said.
A little later she and Hal happened to look out in front and they saw aqueer sight. Sammie was drawing along the sidewalk his little expresswagon, in which he had piled some tomatoes. They were large, ripe ones,and he must have picked them from his father's vines, since he could notget through the fence into the Blake gardens.
"Oh, Sammie!" cried Mab, running out to him, "What are you doing withthose tomatoes?"
"Sammie goin' have a 'mato store an' sell 'em like you an' Hal. You wantcome my 'mato store?" he asked, looking up and smiling.
"No, I guess we have all the tomatoes we want," laughed Hal.
Sammie did not seem to worry about this. Maybe he thought some one elsewould buy his vegetables. He wheeled his cart up near his own front fence,on the grass and sat down beside it.
"'Mato store all ready," he said. "People come an' buy now."
But though several persons passed they did not ask Sammie how much histomatoes were. They may have thought he was only playing, and that histomatoes were not good ones, though they really were nice and fresh.
"We'd better go tell his father or mother," suggested Mab to her brother."I don't believe they know he's here."
"Guess they don't," Hal agreed. "Come on; he might get hurt out there allalone."
Brother and sister started into the Porter yard. They did not see Sammie'smother, but his father was down in the back end of his lot, weeding anonion bed.
"Hello, children!" called Mr. Porter. "Did you come over to see how mygarden is growing?"
"We came to tell you about Sammie," said Mab. "He's out--"
"Hello! Where IS that little tyke?" cried Mr. Porter suddenly. "He washere a little while ago, making believe hoe the weeds out of the potatoes.I don't see him," he added, straightening up and looking among the rows ofvegetables.
"He's out in front trying to sell tomatoes," said Hal.
"Oh my!" cried Sammie's father. "I told him not to pick anything, but yousimply can't watch him all the while."
He ran out toward the front of the house, Hal and Mab following. They sawSammie seated on the ground near his express wagon, and he was squeezing abig red tomato, the juice and seeds running all over him.
"Sammie boy! What in the world are doing?" cried his father.
"Sammie plantin' 'mato," was the answer. "Nobody come to my store likeHal's an' Mab's, so plant my 'matos."
Then th
ey saw where he had dug a hole in the ground with a stick, intothis he was letting some of the tomato juice and seeds run, as he squeezedthem between his chubby fingers.
"Oh, but you are a sight!" said Mr. Porter with a shake of his head. "Whatyour mother will say I don't dare guess! Here! Drop that tomato, Sammie!You've got more all over you than you have in the hole. What are youtrying to do?"
"Make a 'mato garden," was Sammie's answer as his father picked him up. "Iput seeds in ground and make more 'matoes grow."
"But you musn't do it out here," said Mr. Porter, trying not to laugh,though Sammie was a queer sight. "Besides, I told you not to pick mytomatoes. You have wasted nearly a quart. Now come in and your mother willwash you."
Into the house he carried the tomato-besmirched little boy, while Hal andMab pulled in the express wagon with what were left of the vegetables.Sammie had squeezed three of the big, ripe tomatoes into a soft pulpletting the juice and seeds run all over.
"And a tomato has lots of juice and seeds," said Mab as she and Hal toldDaddy and Mother Blake, afterward, what had happened.
"Yes, nearly all vegetables have plenty of seeds," said their father."Mother Nature provides them so there may never be any lack. If eachtomato, squash or pumpkin or if each bean or pea pod only had one seed in,that one might not be a good one. That is it might not have inside it thatstrange germ of life, which starts it growing after it is planted.
"So, instead of one seed there are hundreds, as in a watermelon ormuskmelon. And nearly all of them are fertile, or good, so that othermelons may be raised from them.
"You see I only bought a small package of tomato seeds, and yet from themwe will have hundreds of tomatoes, and each tomato may have a hundredseeds or more, and each of those seeds may be grown into a vine that willhave hundreds of tomatoes on, each with a hundred seeds in it and each ofthese seeds--"
"Oh, Daddy! Please stop!" begged Mab with a laugh. "It's like the story ofthe rats and the grains of corn!"
"Yes, there is no end to the increase that Mother Nature gives to us,"said Daddy Blake. "The earth is a wonderful place. It is like a bigarithmetic table--it multiplies one seed into many."
The long Summer vacation was now at hand. Hal and Mab did not have to goto school, and they could spend more time in the garden with their mother,with Uncle Pennywait or Aunt Lolly, while Daddy Blake, every chance hehad, used the hoe often to keep down the weeds.
"There is nothing like hoeing to make your garden, a success," he told thechildren.
"Do they hoe on big farms?" asked Hal.
"Well, on some, yes. I'll take you children to a farm, perhaps before theSummer is over, and you can see how they do it. Instead of hoeing, though,where there is a big field of corn or potatoes, the farmer runs acultivator through the rows. The cultivator is like a lot of hoes joinedtogether, and it loosens the dirt, cuts down the weeds and piles the soft,brown soil around the roots of the plants just where it is most needed.But our garden is too small for a horse cultivator--that is one drawn by ahorse. The one I shove along by hand is enough for me."
Of course Hal and Mab did not spend all their time in the garden. Theysometimes wanted to play with their boy and girl chums. For though it wasfun to watch the things growing, to help them by hoeing, by keeping awaythe weeds and the bugs and worms, yet there was work in all this. AndDaddy Blake believed, as do many fathers, that "all work and no play makesJack a dull boy." So Hal and Mab had their play times.
One day Mrs. Blake asked Hal and Mab to pick as many of the ripe tomatoesthey could find on the vines.
"Are we going to have another store and sell them?" asked Hal.
"No, I am going to can some, and make chili sauce of the others," answeredhis mother. "In that way we will have tomatoes to eat next Winter."
It was more fun for Hal and Mab to pick the ripe tomatoes than it was tohoe in the garden, and soon, with the help of Uncle Pennywait, they hadgathered several baskets full of the red vegetables. Then Aunt Lolly andMother Blake made themselves busy in the kitchen. They boiled and stewedand cooked on the stove and there floated out of the door and windows asweet, spicy smell.
"Oh, isn't that good!" cried Mab.
"It will taste good next Winter!" laughed their uncle.
"And to think it comes out of our garden--the tomato part, I mean," spokeMab.
"Come on!" called Hal, after a while, when they had picked all thetomatoes Mother Blake needed.
"Where you going?" asked Mab.
"Over to Charlie Simpson's and have some fun. He's got a new dog."
"Wait a minute and I'll give you each a penny!" called their uncle, andHal and Mab were very glad to wait, for they were hungry after havingpicked the tomatoes.
Very early the next morning the Blake family was awakened by the loudringing of their door bell.
"Oh, my goodness! I hope the house isn't on fire!" cried Aunt Lolly,quickly getting out of bed.
"It's Mr. Porter. He's at our front door," reported Hal, who had lookedfrom the window of his room, from which the front steps could be seen.
"What's the matter? What is it; a message--a telegram?" asked Mr. Blake,as he, too, looked from Hal's window. "What has happened?"
Mrs. Blake and the children waited anxiously to hear what the answer wouldbe.