rnels from the husks, or envelopes that are not good to eat.
But I'll tell you more about that when we get on the farm."

"When are we going to beat out my beans?" asked Mab.

"In a week or so, as soon as they get dried well, and are ripe enough so
that they are hard, we will flail, or thresh them," answered Daddy Blake.
"I am going to thresh some peas, too, to have them dried for this Winter."

Farmer Henderson left the flail which he had made for Daddy Blake, and Hal
and Mab looked at it. They could whirl it around their heads, but their
father told them to be careful not to hurt one another.

"I'm going to thresh some peas!" cried Hal.

"And I'll use it on my beans so I can get the ten dollar gold prize!"
cried Mab.

There were busy times in the Blake home for the next few weeks, for there
was much canning to be done, so that the vegetables raised in the garden
during the Summer would keep to be eaten in the Winter.

"For that," said Daddy Blake, "is why Uncle Sam, which is another name for
our government, wants us to grow things out of the earth. It is so that
there may be plenty of food for all."

So tomatoes were canned, or made into ketchup and chili sauce, while some
were used green in pickles. Aunt Lolly brought into the house the cucumber
which had grown inside the glass bottle. It was the exact shape of the
glass flask, and when this had been broken the cucumber even had on its
side, in white letters, the name of the drug firm that made the bottle.
For the name had been painted black by Aunt Lolly and as the rays of the
sun could not go through the black paint the cucumber was white in those
places and green all over elsewhere. The children's cucumbers also grew to
funny shapes in their bottles.

Mother Blake, with Mab and Hal to help, pulled up her carrots, of which
she had a good crop. The long yellow vegetables, like big ice cream cones,
Uncle Pennywait said, were stored in a dark place in the cellar.

"You have a fine crop of carrots," said Daddy Blake.

"Do you think I'll win the prize?" asked his wife.

"Well, I wouldn't be surprised," he answered.

"Oh, if she should!" exclaimed Hal to his sister.

"Well," spoke Mab, with a long sigh, "of course I'd like to have that ten
dollar gold piece MYSELF, but we ought to want MOTHER to have it, too."

"Of course," said Hal, and then he went out to look at his corn. It had
grown very tall, and there were ears on every stalk. Much had been eaten
d