July was a great month in the little gardens. Almost everything bloomed
and bore. The pinks, the pansies, the alyssum, the sweet-williams and
the morning-glories--they grew and then bloomed and crowded each other
in their beds until some of them had to be moved into new places, while
as for Davy's things, his corn grew taller and taller, until it shaded
his tomato vines, and he was afraid they would not do well for want of
sun. But the sun was up so high, and was so hot in July, that perhaps
they got enough anyway, for they grew so big they had to be tied up,
and the tomatoes on them were so large that Davy thought one was almost
enough for a whole family. As for his beans--well, Davy will plant
fewer beans next year. They began to bear just a little at first, and
then, all at once, there were beans enough on his few hills, not only
for himself and Prue, but for the rest of the family, and then for the
neighbors, too. Davy picked nearly all one hot afternoon to keep up
with his bean crop, and then nearly trotted his fat legs off carrying
little baskets to the different people that he knew, explaining to each
that these were really from his own garden--his own beans that he had
planted and tended himself. Then he and Prue carried some vegetables
and flowers to a little hospital not far away, where there were some
sick children, and some who were just getting well. And it was a
happy, happy time for the little boy and girl when they took the things
they had planted and cared for to the other little boys and girls who
seemed so glad to have them come.
But as the weather grew warmer and summer showers came the weeds got
worse and worse. Sometimes when Davy and Prue had tried very hard to
get them all out and found that new ones had come almost over night,
while some of the old ones they had cut down had taken root again, they
were almost discouraged.
"I don't see what weeds are for anyway," Davy said one warm morning,
almost crying, and little Prue, whose face was very red and hot, flung
herself down in the shady peach-tree house, too tired to talk. "Now,
there's that old pursley, I pull and pull and cut, and unless I carry
every bit of it away, it all takes root again and grows right along as
if I hadn't touched it."
"Yes," said the Chief Gardener, "it is a nuisance. I suppose its pretty
sister is very much ashamed of it."
"Its sister! Why, who is its sister?" asked Davy, while little Prue sat
up and forgot she was tired.
"Miss Portulaca Purslane, of course, sometimes called Rose-moss,
because her flower is something like a wild rose and her stem and
leaves a little like overgrown moss."
"Oh, is my sweet rose-moss just old pursley weed?" whimpered little
Prue, who was very proud of a little bunch of portulaca that was just
in full bloom. She had chosen the pretty flower from a catalogue, and
it had been one of her best growers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account