"No indeed," said Willy, "but you do not cover all the other plants with earth, as you do the celery?" "No, because we do not want them to grow white; they do much better with green leaves and coloured blossoms and fruit; so we only cover their roots with earth: that is what all plants want. Ah! you little know all the good that happens under this dirty ground, which you despise so much. Have you never sown any seeds?" "Oh yes, very often." "Well, then, you know, seeds are little brown things, much of the colour of dirt, and perhaps you may think no better of them than you do of earth; but do you know what they grow into when they are sown?" "Yes; they turn into flowers, and leaves, and all sorts of pretty things. But I cannot think how all this happens in that dark dirty place underground. I wish I could make a hole down deep enough in the earth to see how the seed is changing into the pretty plant." "But if you did," replied the gardener, "you could not see what passed there, it is so dark. We none of us know how it is done; but we know who it is that does it. It is the good God, who does so many wonderful things; and we must never forget to thank him for it. However, I know a little more about it than you do, for I have done nothing but work in the garden these fifty years and more. I have sown so many seeds, and watered so many flowers, and gathered so much fruit, that it would be strange if I did not know something about it." "But you cannot see in the dark any better than I can," said Willy: "so how can you know what happens to the seed underground?" "It is not by looking at the seed underground, but by taking it up when it is beginning to grow, that I see how it grows. Come along with me," said he, taking Willy by the hand, and carrying his hoe with the other; and he led him to another part of the garden, where there was a bed of fresh earth raked over, quite smooth and neat. "Are you going to sow some seeds in this bed?" asked Willy, "for there is nothing growing in it?" "I sowed the seeds some days ago, and by this time I am sure they are all growing; that is, beginning to change into plants; but they have not had time to grow up above ground yet:" then he took his hoe, and turned up a little bit of the earth, and there he found three or four seeds of kidney beans beginning to sprout out and grow. He took up one, and showing it to Willy, said, "Look here, what has happened to this seed!" "I don't know," replied Willy, "but I think it must have been broken in falling, when it was sown, for you see it is split quite open, and spoiled; so this poor seed will never grow." "It is not spoiled at all," said the gardener; "for it must be split open to be changed into a plant. The skin of the seed cracks, and through the crack the little stem or stalk of the plant grows up." "But there is nothing growing out of this split seed."