sh, but old, rotted manure. This he very carefully mixed in with the
soil already made fine.

"Now I shall put the frame on. Come, Elizabeth, and give me a lift with
this." After some tugging the frame was set.

"I thought frames were usually sunk in the ground," commented Elizabeth.

"I shall do that this fall and make a real hotbed out of it. You see
this spring I just want to give my seeds a little extra start. That's
why I made the soil so rich and so deep. Now I am going to bank the
frame about with manure. Then I shall put dirt over that. You see I get
some extra heat that way. Just see the fine slope of the glass. I guess
Old Sun will get caught all right."

Jack busily banked the frame, spanking the fertilizer down hard with the
back of his spade. He sloped it up some four inches along the sides and
front.

"Now I am going to make drills for my seed. In the first partition I
shall plant lettuce and tomato; then pepper and onion go in, and the
third is for flower seed." Jack bent over the frame, and began to
scratch lengthwise of the beds with the edge of his trowel. Red-faced
from bending over, and hot from his former exertion, his trouser knees
covered with earth and manure, he stood off and looked at his work.

"I'm precious glad Elizabeth has gone, for if those aren't the worst,
crookedest old rows I ever saw."

And so they were. They were all distances apart, of different depths and
entirely untidy-looking.

Jack picked up his rake and again raked the little beds over, so that no
trace of his poor work was left. Then he found a board which stretched
across the frame widthwise, so that he could kneel upon this and work to
advantage in the bed. He next whittled out two little pointed sticks to
act as stakes, and tying to these a piece of cord just the right length
for the drills, he was ready for work. With one stake stuck in the bed
at the upper end, the other at the lower, the cord between gave Jack a
good string line for the drill. Then, with the end of a small round
stick held close against the taut line, the drill was made. So he
continued making drills at distances of four inches apart.

Pouring out some lettuce seed in his hand, Jack began to sprinkle it
rather unevenly in the first little drill. Elizabeth, having returned,
stood by watching and shaking her head. "I didn't know you were here.
You make me nervous," began Jack.

"I feel more nervous than you possibly can, for you are wasting se