big frozen
chunks of rain coming down, and he remembered what his father had said
about it spoiling garden and farm crops. So Hal, when no one was looking,
got a big umbrella from the rack and went out to hold it over his corn.
Mr. Porter happened to see him and told Mr. Blake.

The shower did not last very long, and when it was over Daddy Blake took
Hal and Mab into the garden to see what damage had been done. The ground
was so muddy they had to wear rubbers.

"Oh, a lot of my beans are beaten down!" cried Mab, as she looked at her
bushes.

"They'll straighten up again when the sun comes out," said her father. "If
they don't you can hold them up with your hand and hoe more dirt around
their roots. That's what I shall have to do with my tomatoes, too. The
fruit is getting too heavy for the vines. However no great harm will be
done."

"A lot of my corn is torn," said Hal. "It's too bad!"

"Not enough is torn to spoil the ears," said Daddy Blake. "A gardener must
expect to have a little damage done to his crops by the storms. Of course
it isn't nice, but it is part of the garden game. Sometimes whole
orchards, big green houses and large fields of grain are ruined by hail
storms. We were lucky."

"What does a farmer do when his whole crop is spoiled by a big storm?"
asked Hal.

"Well, generally a farmer raises many crops, so that if one fails he can
make money on the others. That is what makes it hard to be a farmer, or,
rather, one of the things that make it hard. He never can tell whether or
not he is going to have a good crop of anything. Sometimes it may be
storms that spoil his wheat or hay, and again it may be dry weather, with
not enough rain, or bugs and worms may eat up many of his growing things.
So you see a farmer, or a man who has a larger garden, must grow many
crops so that if he loses one he may have others to keep him through the
Winter, either by selling the things he raises, or by eating them
himself."

The next day there was no school, and Hal and Mab spent much time in their
garden. The sun came out bright and warm, and the children said they could
almost SEE the things growing. Mab declared that her bean vines grew
almost an inch that one day, and it may be that they did. Beans grow very
fast. If you have ever watched them going up a pole you would know this to
be true.

With their hoes the children piled more dirt around the roots of the
garden plants where the rain had washed the soil a