"Mercy no! I am as anxious to see the seeds as I am to plant the tiny green shoots that Mr. Ames promised to give us." Then after another mighty yawn that almost dislocated her jaw, Natalie added: "Jimmy, I want to get up very early in the morning to plant those slips we got to-day. Mr. Ames says I must give them several hours in the ground before the sun is up, so they won't wilt and die. So I think I will go up to bed--if you don't mind?"
"By all means, Natalie. And I will follow, shortly. I just want to enter a few notes on our work in this diary, then I will retire, also; I think we can work better at dawn if we get our full quota of sleep during the night."
The next day was given to breaking up the clods of earth and raking out the smaller stones to clear the garden beds. The compost was well-mixed with the soil by Farmer Ames, while Mrs. James and Natalie went down to the woodland by the river and found certain places where leaf-mould was plentiful. It was as fine as gunpowder, and of an exceptionally rich quality. That morning, Mr. Ames had arrived, driving Bob and an old buckboard. When it was proposed that someone go for the leaf-mould, Natalie instantly suggested that they drive Bob to the woodland so the baskets could be placed on the buckboard and carried to the garden that way. This would save time and great exertion on the part of someone to carry them from the river to the beds.
Now the containers were lifted up and placed securely on the back and front platforms of the buckboard and the two hard-working companions gladly sat down on the seat and started Bob up the grass-grown road.
Soon they were helping to spread out the leaf-mould on the soil, and while they worked, Natalie asked: "Mr. Ames, how comes it that no one ever went to the river bank to get this rich mould?"
"Well, that woodland and the river banks belongs to this farm, so no one else would trespass on it. And the man who ran this farm had idees of his own about fertilizer. He placed no faith in Nature's work, but kep' on buyin' and experimentin' with stuff what came from Noo York."
Mr. Ames stood up while delivering this explanation, then he added, winking wisely at Natalie:
"But he diden spile yer farm, fer all his foolin' wid Noo York stuff instead of goin' to Nature fer her goods."