where you are going
to plant your beans, as smooth as you can. Then mark it off into rows. You
should plant your beans in rows with the rows about two feet apart, and
put the beans in each row so they are about four inches, one from the
other. That will give the plants room enough to spread."

"How do I plant my corn?" asked Hal.

"Well, corn must be planted a little differently from beans," answered
Daddy Blake. "You should have your rows from two to three feet apart and
each hill of corn should be from a foot to a foot and a half from the next
hill."

"Does corn only grow on a hill?" asked Hal.

"Oh, no," laughed his father, "though on some farms and gardens the corn
may be planted on the side of a hill. What I mean was that after your corn
begins to grow, the ground is hoed around the corn stalks in a sort of
little hill. That is done to keep it from blowing over, for corn grows
very tall, in the West sometimes ten and twelve feet high.

"However that is yellow or field corn, from which corn meal is made. The
kind you are going to plant, Hal, is called sweet corn, such as we eat
green from the cob after it is boiled. That may not grow so high. But in a
day or so it will be time for your corn and beans to be planted, for
Spring is now fully here and the weather is warm enough."

Hal and Mab worked hard in their gardens. They raked the ground until it
was quite smooth. Daddy Blake, his wife, Aunt Lollypop and Uncle Pennywait
also raked and smoothed the parts of the garden where they were going to
plant their seeds. Sometimes the older folks helped the children.

Next door Mr. Porter was planting his garden, and red-haired Sammie
thought he was helping. At least he picked up the stones and threw them at
the fence. If Roly-Poly had been there maybe Sammie would have thrown the
stones for the little poodle dog to run after. But Roly had been sent
away for a few weeks, until the gardens had begun to grow. For Roly never
could see a nicely smoothed patch of ground without wanting to dig in it,
and spoil it.

"We'll bring him back when the garden things are larger and well-enough
grown so he can not hurt them," said Daddy Blake.

Hal and Mab planted their corn and beans. Daddy Blake showed his little
girl how to punch holes in the brown earth along a straight row which her
father made with the rake handle, and into the holes she dropped the
beans, covering them with earth so that they were about two inches down
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