"Hoh, them's only top-weeds what can be yanked out. The sile itself is good as any hereabouts."

"Well, then, Mr. Ames," said Mrs. James, "you'd better plough that section, too, for the corn or potatoes."

So the rough part of the ground by the fence-line was ploughed up, but the quant.i.ty of stones found in the soil was appalling to Natalie. Mr.

Ames chuckled at her expression.

"Don't worry about seein' so many, 'cuz you only has to pick out one stone at a time, you know. Ef you does this one at a time, widdout thinkin' of how many there seem to be afore your eyes, you soon git them all out an' away."

"I see Mr. Ames is a good moralizer," smiled Mrs. James.

He nodded his head, and then suggested that he visit the barnyard to see if any old compost was left about by the former tenant. If so, it would be a good time to dig it under in the ploughed soil.

"Oh, I want to go with Mr. Ames, Jimmy, to see just what compost he considers good," exclaimed Natalie, dancing away.

Mrs. James watched her go and smiled. The tonic of being in the country and working on the farm was beginning to tell already. Before she resumed her task of picking up stones, however, the clarion voice of Rachel came from the kitchen porch.

"Hey, Mis' James! I'se got lunch all ready to eat!"

As the lady was well-nigh starved because of the early breakfast and the work in the earth, she sighed in relief. Now she would have a spell in which to rest and gain courage to go on with the stoning. This showed that it was not interesting to Mrs. James, but she was determined to carry it through.

Natalie ran indoors soon after Mrs. James and went to the dining-room where the luncheon was served. She was so eager to tell what Farmer Ames told her that she hardly saw that Rachel had prepared her favorite dessert-berry tarts.

"Jimmy, Mr. Ames knows more about farming and soil than books! He says a mixed compost from the stables and barnyard makes the best of all fertilizers."

"His logic sounds plausible, Natty, but we haven't any such compost to use, and perhaps never will have if we wish to use it from our own barns," said Mrs. James regretfully.

"But Mr. Ames said he could sell us some of that grade compost, if we needed any. He says he does not believe our soil needs fertilizing this year, as it is so rich already."

"That is splendid news, as it will save us much time in seeding, too,"

returned Mrs. James.

"I wanted to show him that I knew something about composts, so I told him about what I read in the book for Scouts last night:-that one could use a commercial fertilizer if one had no barnyard manure available. He looked at me amazed, and I explained that many farmers used four-parts bone-dust to one part muriate of potash and mixed it well. This would fertilize a square rod of land. I felt awfully proud of myself as I spoke, but he soon made me feel humble again, by saying, 'Do you spread it out on top of the ground after the seed is in, Miss Natalie, or do you put it under the sile to het up the roots?'"

Mrs. James laughed and asked, "What could you say?"

"That's just it-I didn't know, Jimmy; so I made a guess at it. I replied: 'Why, I mix it very carefully all through the soil'-and Jimmy!

I struck it right first time!" laughed she.

Mr. Ames had finished his dinner (so he called it) long before Natalie and her chaperone, and when they started to leave the house they found that he was hard at work removing the rest of the stones from the ploughed ground.

"Oh, I'm so glad of that, Jimmy!" cried Natalie, as she watched the farmer at work.

"Well, to tell the truth, Natalie, I'm not sorry to find that job taken from us," laughed Mrs. James. "I found it most tiresome and with no encouragement from the stones."

"Let's do something else, Jimmy, and let Mr. Ames finish the stone-work," suggested Natalie, quickly. Just then Rachel came out on the back steps of the kitchen porch.

"Mis' James, Farmeh Ames say foh you-all to drive ole Bob back to his house en' fetch a load of compos' what he says is back of his barns. His man knows about it. Den you kin brung along dem leetle plants what is weeded out of his garden and keep 'em down cellar fer to-night."

Natalie felt elated at this novel suggestion of work, thereby freeing them both from the irksome task of stoning the garden. And Mrs. James laughed as she pictured herself driving the farm-wagon on the county road where an endless stream of automobiles constantly pa.s.sed.

But she was courageous, and soon the two were gayly chattering, as Bob stumbled and stamped along the macadam road. Above the clatter of loose wheels and rattling boards in the floor of the old wagon, the merry laughter of Natalie could be heard by the autoists, as they pa.s.sed the "turn-out" from Green Hill Farm.

Having reached the Ames's farm and found the handy-man who would load up the barnyard compost in the wagon for them, Natalie asked him many questions that had been interesting her.

CHAPTER VII-NATALIE LEARNS SEVERAL SECRETS

Natalie made good use of her eyes while Farmer Ames's man gave her the vegetable slips, and when she got back home the first question she asked Mr. Ames was: "Why can't I buy a few of your asparagus slips? I love asparagus and you have a fine bed of it."

"I'd give yer some slips, and welcome, but it don't grow that way,"

replied he. "First you've got to hev jest the right quality of sand and loam mixed in kerrect proportions, and then yer seed it down. The fust season of asparagra.s.s it ain't no good fer cuttin'; the sec.u.n.t year it turns out a few baby stalks, but the third year it comes along with a fine crop-ef you've taken good care of it through the winter cold, and shaded the young plants from summer's sun-heat the fust two years."

"Oh, I never dreamed there was so much trouble to just raising asparagus!" exclaimed Natalie. "How long does it take in the spring, Mr.

Ames, before the plant produces the ripe vegetable?"

Mr. Ames turned and stared at Natalie to see if she was joking, but finding she was really in earnest, he laughingly replied: "Asparagra.s.s doesn't ripen like termaters er beans,-when the young stalk shoots up from the sile, yer cut it off. It is the tip that is best, fer that holds the heart of the plant. Ef you let it keep on growin' it will shoot up into a high plant with the seed in its cup. But we cut it before it grows up."

"Oh dear! Then I can't raise it for three years, can I?" said she complainingly.

"It don't look that way," remarked the farmer.

Mrs. James and Natalie had returned with the farm-wagon loaded with compost late in the afternoon, and Farmer Ames stopped work soon after their return to Green Hill Farm.

"I've gotta look after my own stock and truck now, but I'll be back to-morrer mornin' an' help spread out the fertilizer so's the ground will be ready in another day er two."

"I don't know what we would have done without you, Mr. Ames," said Natalie, standing on the carriage step near the side drive.

"Well, es long es you diden have to do without me, what's the use tryin'

to figger out what you would have done," laughed he, as he gathered up the reins.

"That's splendid logic, Mr. Ames," laughed Mrs. James, pleased at his reply.

"I allus says we waste more time crossin' bridges what never was excep'

in our imagination, than it would take to go miles round-about 'em."

After this last original proverb, he started the horse along his way.

Directly after the evening meal, Mrs. James took her Scout manual and sat down on the piazza to study the chapter on gardening. Natalie saw what she was doing and ran in to get her book, also.

"Jimmy, it doesn't say one ought to have a trowel and pick for garden work. Mr. Ames said we should always have them on hand in case of need.

I can see how much easier it would have been to clear the ground of the stones had we had the pick instead of having had to use the digging-fork," said Natalie.

"I think so, too. And the hand-trowel will be very useful when we transplant the small plants. I don't see how one can get along well without it, or without a short hand-rake. But I wanted to read what it says about making the garden beds. That is why I began reading it to-night."

"It says the bed should be three feet wide by twelve long," read Natalie.