ides so that rain
would run off the glass, and called the girls out to admire their
result.

"What are we going to put in here first?" asked Ethel Brown, who liked
to get at the practical side of matters at once.

"I'd like to have some violets," said Ethel Blue. "Could I have a corner
for them? I've had some plants promised me from the Glen Point
greenhouse man. Margaret is going to bring them over as soon as I'm
ready for them."

"I want to see if I can beat Dicky with early vegetables," declared
Roger. "I'm going to start early parsley and cabbage and lettuce,
cauliflower and egg plants, radishes and peas and corn in shallow
boxes--flats Grandfather says they're called--in my room and the kitchen
where it's warm and sunny, and when they've sprouted three leaves I'll
set them out here and plant some more in the flats."

"Won't transplanting them twice set them back?"

"If you take up enough earth around them they ought not to know that
they've taken a journey."

"I've done a lot of transplanting of wild plants from the woods," said
Stanley, "and I found that if I was careful to do that they didn't even
wilt."

"Why can't we start some of the flower seeds here and have early
blossoms?"

"You can. I don't see why we can't keep it going all the time and have a
constant supply of flowers and vegetables earlier than we should if we
trusted to Mother Nature to do the work unaided."

"Then in the autumn we can stow away here some of the plants we want to
save, geraniums and begonias, and plants that are pretty indoors, and
take them into the house when the indoor ones become shabby."

"Evidently right in the heart of summer is the only time this article
won't be in use," decided Stanley, laughing at their eagerness. "Have
you got anything to cover it with when the spring sunshine grows too
hot?"

"There is an old hemp rug and some straw matting in the attic--won't
they do?"

"Perfectly. Lay them over the glass so that the delicate little plants
won't get burned. You can raise the sashes, too."

"If we don't forget to close them before the sun sets and the night
chill comes on, I suppose," smiled Ethel Blue. "Mr. Emerson says that
seeds under glass do better if they're covered with newspaper until they
start."

It was about the middle of March when Mrs. Smith went in to call on her
neighbors, the Miss Clarks, one evening. They were at home and after a
talk on the ever-absorbing theme of the war Mrs. Smith