as pretty hot, and Mr. 'Possum did
most of his hoeing over by the trees where it wasn't so sunny, and said
that hereafter he thought it would be a good plan to plant all their
garden in the shade.

And every day they kept looking for the seeds to come up, and by-and-by
a few did come up, and then they were quite proud, and went over and
told Jack Rabbit about it, and Mr. Rabbit came over to give them some
advice, and said he thought their garden looked pretty well for being
its first year and put in late, though it looked to him, he said, as if
some of it had been planted the wrong time of the moon, and he didn't
think so much shade was very good for most things.

But Mr. 'Possum said he'd rather have more shade and less things, and he
thought next year he'd let his part of the garden out on shares.

Well, it got hotter and hotter, and the weeds grew more and more, and
the Hollow Tree People had to work and hoe and pull nearly all day in
the sun to keep up with them, and they would have given it up pretty
soon, only they wanted to show Jack Rabbit that they could have a garden
too, and by-and-by, when their things got big enough to eat, they were
so proud that they invited Mr. Rabbit to come over for dinner, and they
sent word to Mr. Turtle, too, because he likes good things and lives
alone, not being a family man like Mr. Robin and Mr. Squirrel.

Now of course the Hollow Tree People knew that they had no such fine
things in their garden as Jack Rabbit had in his, and they said they
couldn't expect to, but they'd try to have other things to make up; and
Mr. Crow was cooking for two whole days getting his chicken-pies and his
puddings and such things ready for that dinner. And then when the
morning came for it he was out long before sun-up to pick the things in
the garden while they were nice and fresh, with the dew on them.

But when Mr. Crow looked over his garden he felt pretty bad, for, after
all, the new potatoes were little and tough, and the pease were small
and dry, and the beans were thin and stringy, and the salad was pretty
puny and tasteless, and the corn was just nubbins, because it didn't
grow in a very good place and maybe hadn't been planted or tended very
well. So Mr. Crow walked up and down the rows and thought a good deal,
and finally decided that he'd just take a walk over toward Jack Rabbit's
garden to see if Mr. Rabbit's things were really so much better after
all.

It was just about sunrise,