In the meantime, Jackie had been busy, you may be sure; but he couldn't find anything to make a soldier of except sticks of wood, but he had no jack-knife, much as he had always wanted one. "Whatever shall I do?" thought Jackie, as he looked about the garden, and just then he saw an ear of corn and he picked it up. "Maybe this will do," and he picked all the kernels off except two for the eyes, one for the nose, two more for the ears and a row for the teeth. And he ran to Peggs to have her sew some clothes for his soldier. "What do you think of Little Miss Sweetclover?" says Peggs, holding it up for Jackie to see. "I think she's very pretty," says Jackie, "only she needs legs." And while Peggs cut out and sewed a uniform for the soldier, Jackie went in search of legs for Sweetclover. And these he made of two stems of a flower, bent at the ends to look like feet. And he ran back to Peggs with them. "Here are the legs for Sweetclover with green shoes and stockings on." And he tied them to the rest of Sweetclover so that when she walked, they wouldn't come off. By this time Peggs had finished the uniform for Jackie's soldier and a hat of newspaper with a great plume of cornsilk and a lot of medals which were cut from the gold leaf that comes on a card of buttons. And when they were all sewed on the jacket, he cut out a sword from the gold leaf and made hands and feet from the corn husk. And he colored the eyes with black ink and the lips with red, and, much before you could say "Crickety," the soldier was all finished. "What'll we call him?" asked Jackie. And they thought, and thought, and thought. "I have it!" said Jackie. "What?" asked Peggs. "We'll call him Kernel Cob," says Jackie. "Goodie!" says Peggs, clapping her hands with glee. And you will see what wonderful dolls they were, and what wonderful things they did, and how they helped Jackie and Peggs to find ... but never mind. You will see. [Illustration] CHAPTER II And one day, when Jackie and Peggs were playing in the garden with Kernel Cob and Sweetclover, the sun was very hot, so Peggs ran and got a parasol and put it over the dolls so they wouldn't wilt. "I'd like Kernel Cob to be a great general," said Jackie as he put up the parasol, "and fight in all the wars of the world and lead his soldiers with a sword in his hand and get wounded and all that. Not very much wounded, though. Or I'd like to have him be an Admiral and sail all around the world. What do you think of that?" "That's good," said Peggs. "You bet," said Jackie. And he stood on his tippy toes to look bigger. "And I'd like Sweetclover to be a mother," says Peggs, "and have hundreds and hundreds of children so she could give them all the dolls that ever they wanted." "That would be noble," said Jackie. "It's terrible for children to have no father or mother isn't it?" asked Peggs looking far off at nothing in the sky. "Yes," said Jackie.