[Illustration: _Junior naturalist museum in the school. District No. 2, Sheridan, N. Y._] LEAFLET LXXV. A GARDEN ALL YOUR OWN.[96] BY JOHN W. SPENCER. [96] Junior Naturalist Monthly, May, 1904. MY DEAR NEPHEWS AND NIECES: [Illustration] Would you like to have a garden this summer--a garden all your very own? If so, you can surely have one. A man up in a balloon could have one if he were to try; a man living down in a coal mine could not, because there would be no sunlight. Plants must have light from the sun, which is the vital source of all light. I consider that anyone who cares for a plant, growing either in a window box or in a tomato can, has a garden. Yes; a plant growing in an eggshell constitutes a garden. A LITTLE GIRL'S GARDEN. Near my desk is a picture of a little girl, holding in her arms a big pumpkin that she raised in a garden all her own. I do not know how many pies could have been made from that pumpkin, but, at any rate, it was a big pumpkin. The seed from which the vine started was planted in an egg-shell in the school-room. When the bright May days came the egg-shell had become too small for the plant or the plant had become too large for the egg-shell, so the little girl planted it in the open ground at her home. She must have been a tiny girl or the soil in her garden must have been very hard, for without help she was unable to spade it and make it fine. She hired her father to do it for her and paid him by carrying his dinner every day for a week to the shop where he worked. When lunch time came, papa and she had a little picnic all by themselves. There is no prettier picture than is made by such strong comradeship between a little girl and her father. MAKE A BARGAIN WITH YOUR TEACHER. I hope your teacher will permit you to have some boxes of earth (I mean _soil_) in the windows of your school-room, in which you may plant flower or vegetable seeds. In early June, just before the close of school, you can divide the plants among yourselves and set them out in the open ground or in window boxes at your home. Ask your teacher whether you may have such a privilege. Promise that if she will grant this favor you will be just as good as the "little girl who had a little curl that hung in the middle of her fore-head," and if at any time you become "horrid" the teacher may give your share of the plants to some one better behaved than yourself. If she is a wise teacher she will consent, but not until she has made a bargain with you that you are to do all the work and to ask nothing from her but advice when you need it. [Illustration: _Fig. 357. Sweet peas._] A PLANT NURSERY. [Illustration: _Fig. 358. A nest of window pots._]