CHAPTER IX
VARIOUS UNDESIRED TASKS.
The addition of a cow and a calf, the two swarms of bees, the goslings and Rhode Island Red chickens increased the interest of the girls in their farm life, but it also increased Janet’s work and responsibilities. Then Natalie’s vegetables grew so well that lettuce was an every-day side dish at meals now; and soon, there would be new string beans, beet tops to cut and cook and radishes.
Meantime, Norma’s asters had recovered from their almost fatal dose of Paris Green and the heliotrope that Mrs. Tompkins had sent the amateur florist to replace the one she had killed with the poison was blooming well and wafting its sweet incense upon the breezes, to be carried everywhere about the house.
While the girls were still at breakfast, Mr. Ames drove in at the side gate. Janet sat facing the open window and was the first to see him.
“Oh, he’s got the dump cart and old Ben!” cried she.
“He must be planning to use the cart for something,” said Norma.
But a lively breeze carried an odor far different from the heliotrope blooming in Norma’s garden.
“Oo-oh! Close the door and windows—hurry up, Nat!” called Janet, holding her breath while the girls ran to close the windows.
“Ames brought the compost for the water garden,” was Mrs. James undisturbed statement.
“Of course, he had to bring it some time, but he did not have to stop with it directly under the dining room windows,” said Natalie, in an injured voice.
“Some one had better run out and direct him where to dump the cart load or he will leave it right here, just as he did that other load of fertilizer that he brought for Norma’s flower gardens,” said Belle anxiously.
“If you girls will excuse me, I’ll go and tell him what to do with it,” said Mrs. James, rising and going out.
Then the cart was soon rolling away from that side of the house, and Mrs. James showed Farmer Ames where to leave the old well-rotted cow manure that was to be thoroughly mixed with the mucky marsh soil before spreading it out on the floor bottom of the lake.
“I brung the cart ’cause I figgered the gals would want to use the hoss and cart to get the sand and small rocks for the garden,” explained Ames, as he mopped his brow, after finishing his work on the compost.
“Oh, yes, they will be glad to know they can use it,” said Mrs. James, but at the same time she wondered how to manage so small a cart and so many scouts—for every one of them would wish to ride and cart sand.
Mr. Ames found Sam waiting to help, so the two went to the hollow that was to be a lake and were agreeably surprised to find the water drained out and the bogs standing free and ready to be removed. Mrs. James had forgotten to tell Ames what the girls had accomplished the previous evening with work on the ditch near the barn yard.
Frances drove to Four Corners immediately after breakfast and Janet had to take care of her stock. Natalie had to weed her garden that morning, as she had given it no attention for the past four days and Rachel warned her about the weeds growing higher than the corn and beans.
It was Norma’s and Belle’s turn to milk Sue and prepare the milk for the morning, but both the girls preferred to work on the water garden. When Belle slipped into the kitchen to offer Rachel a quarter if she would do the milking, Mrs. James overheard it and came out.
“No, indeed, Belle! Norma and you must do your work even if you detest it and want to fuss around in the bog. Besides this milking, Norma has to cut the lawns when Frances brings back the mowing machine from Four Corners. She agreed to attend to this work, long before we dreamed of having a water garden. So now it will have to be done, you know.”
Norma pouted but said nothing, for the fact was too obvious to be denied. So Belle and she reluctantly went to the barn yard where Sue waited impatiently to be milked. She had been waiting for more than an hour already and was not apt to be very quiet during milking when she had been kept from her cool pasture so long after sun-up.
“You start the milking, Belle, and I’ll mix the mush for her,” suggested Norma, going to the barn to get the meal.
Belle looked for the stool but could not see it, so she grumbled to herself: “Oh, well! I’ll milk without a seat. Sue always stands still these days and Norma will be holding the pan of mush for her to eat, anyway.”
Janet was very busy in the pig pen, trying to dig out a pool for her pigs to bathe in. Now that the cement was on hand, and she had heard how to mix concrete, she was going to build a fine bath for them. So she merely glanced up when Belle and Norma came to the barn yard to milk the cow.
Belle stooped upon her heels and sat the pail in position, but before she could start milking, Sue gave a vicious kick with a hind foot and sent the pail against the fence of the pig pen. It was badly dented when Belle picked it up and shook it at the cow. That attracted Janet’s attention, and she left the pool-digging and leaned on the fence to watch her companions try to milk Sue.
Norma brought the pan of mush from the barn and hurried with it to Sue’s nose. But Norma had not quite overcome her old timidity of a cow, and Sue’s eyes this morning looked very suggestive of evil. Then, too, those two horns were very long and very curved and very sharp on the ends!
So Norma stood as far on one side as she well could and still manage to hold out the tin pan of corn and bran meal mixed in warm water to keep Sue in a good humor while she was being milked. Being so intent on the cow’s next move, Norma did not notice that Belle was not seated on the stool.
The pail was placed in position again, and Belle again squatted to begin milking. All went well for a few minutes but a horse fly lit on Sue’s leg and took a good hard nip out of it. Instantly the cow kicked rebelliously and switched her tail to try and wipe the pest away. This time the pail rolled over and the contents foamed away in a little stream.
Janet laughed aloud and called to Belle: “Try, try again!”
“Don’t waste futile words—can’t you see that I am trying again and again!”
Norma momentarily forgot her dread of Sue in watching Belle pick up the pail and plank it down hard upon the ground, then squat to try the milking once more. But the horse fly still clung to the cow’s leg and kept the bovine victim aware of its presence, so that Sue finally switched her tail fiercely and suddenly turned her head to see if she could frighten it away by the bobbing of her horns.
This was so unexpected to Norma, that when she saw the big eyes and lolling tongue of the cow staring her right in the face, she dropped the pan and screamed. At the same time she tried to spring backwards out of Sue’s reach, but stumbled over a board and measured her length on the ground.
The switch of the tail, the banging of the tin pan, the scream of Norma, all made Belle jump but she was squatting on her heels and could not balance, so she went right over backwards. Janet leaned over the fence of the pig pen and fairly screamed with mirth at the sight of her two friends stretched out on the barn yard ground.
But Farmer Ames had sent Sam to the barn to get an extra pickaxe and he now arrived in time to see the trouble Belle was having in trying to milk the cow. So he sat down and in a few minutes the stream of milk was flowing freely and the horse fly flew away to find a better resting place without so many disturbing mortals always about.
“Now, then,” said Sam, when he had finished the task. “You gals can lead her to pasture in the field, but be careful and not tether her near them beehives, or she’ll get stung and run away again like she did afore.”
With Sue secured in the pasture lot, Norma and Belle felt that the hardest work of the day was finished. So they walked back to the house eagerly planning for the water garden. They went in at the side door of the porch, to get their sun bonnets, but Norma heard Frances call out as she drove the car past the door:
“I’ve left the lawn mower out here for you, Norma! Jimmy said you were to try and see if you can cut the lawn with it.”
“Dear me! I forgot all about the old grass! I suppose that will take all day, now!” exclaimed Norma impatiently.
But Belle had no condolences to offer, so Norma went through the kitchen and flew down the stoop steps to look for the new mower—she called it “that old mower!”
Frances had left it on the gravel path just around the corner of the house, and Norma, in hurrying along this path, ran into it and stubbed her toe against the wheel.
“Ouch! Who left this old machine right in my way?” she demanded angrily as she limped over to the porch and sat on the lower step to hold her foot and rock back and forth.
But no one heard her wail so she got up after a time and limped back to the lawn mower. She looked it over and in spite of her annoyance, she admitted that the machine looked very smart and capable in its crimson paint and gold trimmings. Then she took hold of the handle and tried to push it over to the grass.
Rachel heard the click of the knives and came to an upper window to look out. When she saw Norma pushing the mower through the grass without having any effect on the long blades, she called out.
“Dat hay is so long by dis time, dat it’ll take Ames’s scythe and a day’s cuttin’ to chop it down fairly well for dat mower to go in and cut.”
Norma now glanced up at the head stuck out of the window and said: “Did you leave that mower right where any one could fall over it?”
“Now, Honey, I ain’t Gen’l Washerton who neber tol’ a lie—but I kin say dis much—if it’ll help dat toe enny, I diden shove the mower in your way, but I knows who did do it!”
“Who! I’m going to tell them what I think of them!” said Norma, with a flushed face.
“I ain’t goin’ to tell—see!” and Rachel quickly drew her laughing face out of sight, and Norma stood fuming for nothing.
About this time, Janet ran along the lane and called to Norma. Being only too glad to leave the mower in the uncut grass and find an excuse to go with Janet to help her in some work, Norma met her half way.
“Say! I just had a fine idea about the pigs’ bathing pool. If I make a concrete bath in the present pen, I will have to keep filling it with water every day. But if I move the pen over to the little brook, they can swim about and bathe as much as they like, and the water will always be clean, because it will run off continually, you see. Don’t you think it would be a simpler matter to move the pig pen than to carry water every day?”
“Of course, but what will you do with the pigs while you are moving the pen and house?” asked Norma.
“Why, I won’t do anything with them, I’ll just build a new house and pen. Jimmy thinks this one will prove to be too weak, anyway, as soon as the pigs grow big and strong.”
“How long before that will be?” asked Norma wonderingly.
“It won’t be long now that I have started a regular course of feeding. This morning I gave them a lot of greens from Nat’s garden—the ones my hens scratched up, you know. Then I fed them enough corn and other stuff to satisfy them for once. I’ve made up my mind to overfeed rather than underfeed them, hereafter.”
“Well, I think the plan of moving the pig pen is best as long as you say you will need a stronger house and fence in the near future,” was Norma’s careful judgment.
“That’s what I think! Let’s go and ask Jimmy what she says about it. I’m most anxious to give them a regular bathing pool, and if she thinks a pen near the brook will be all right, I’m going to start it at once,” declared Janet.
But Mrs. James vetoed the plan of having the pen on the banks of the brook for several reasons, the principle one being: “The pigs, when they are larger, will root in the water and burrow a hole under the fence and get out by way of the brook. You will be in constant race to catch them again. But you might run an iron pipe from our water falls down to a site nearer the falls than the present pen is. That will furnish all the water you will need in a pool. Or you can attach a hose to the old hydrant in the barn yard and fill a concrete pool that way.”
“Is the grass all cut, Norma,” continued Mrs. James, turning to the girl.
“Oh, no! Rachel says it is much too long to run the mower through. I tried it but it wouldn’t budge. Rachel says it needs a scythe and a strong man to cut it down now as it is almost hay.”
Mrs. James smiled but said nothing, so the girls looked over the work that Ames and Sam had accomplished since morning. As they remarked at the amount of bog and muck that had been taken up out of the hollow, Mrs. James added:
“Yes, and you girls can mix it with the cow manure if you have nothing else to do. I was about to go for the wheel-barrow and bring a load of the compost to the first little heap of muck.”
“What shall we mix with it?” asked Belle, and Norma said: “What shall we use?”
“One of you can borrow Ames’s fork while the other goes for our own digging fork in the barn. I will wheel as much of the fertilizer as is meant to be mixed in one of the pyramids of marsh muck, and one of you can fork it in thoroughly. The next load I will wheel to the second heap of muck and then the other girl can mix the two fertilizers together. In this way, we ought to be through with all the different heaps that Ames is shoveling up on the bank by the time he is finished cleaning out the swamp.”
Janet and Norma had not hankered for this particular kind of gardening, but they liked it better than doing some tiresome task that had become monotonous because of daily repetition. Norma was forking over the muck with an earnest goodwill when the cries from Janet caused every one on the farm to race for the barn yard to find out what dire thing had happened there.
This was the time Janet discovered Seizer, one of the three little pigs dead from overeating and the tomato vines she had fed them that morning.
It took a full hour to calm Janet’s regrets and cries, but the distressing circumstance cooled the girls’ ardent eagerness to finish the water garden that day without fail.
When Farmer Ames laid aside his tools that evening, however, and went to get Ben and the cart, he said to Mrs. James: “Well, it looks as if that work would be finished tomorrow!”
This was so encouraging to Norma that she began to reconsider her recent hasty decision that flower gardening was a waste of time unless one had money and help to do the work right.
Directly after supper, that evening, Norma sat down to write a few lines home. The other girls were planning to do likewise for each one needed money to conduct her business undertaking.
“Dear Mother and Father:” Norma began.
Then she sat chewing the end of the pen holder and frowned at the road in front of the house. The sight must have been inspiring, for a moment later she resumed her writing and kept steadily on until the letter was finished.
She told her parents of the coming of Sam and his dog; of the drive across country in search of a cow, and how they got one from Miss Jipson, and how the man Folsom tricked them with little Susy, but how Mrs. James squared accounts with him afterward.
She used several sheets of paper to tell how Janet’s chickens escaped and dug up Natalie’s precious vegetables and how Rachel fooled Janet into believing the old Leghorn hens were laying eggs every day, while all this time Sam was sent regularly to put the eggs from the farmer in the nests. Then she described how Janet thought she had poison-ivy rash all over her, but discovered it was all the fault of the chicken lice that infested her hens, and on the brood hen she had handled so much.
The scratching pen had moved rapidly across the sheets of paper while Norma smilingly told these stories of Janet and Natalie, but when she began to describe some of her own woes in flower gardening, she lost her smile and trouble sat heavily upon her brow. She told how she killed her best heliotrope plant by using four times the strength of poison to kill the bugs; how the dog planted his old bones in the finest seedling bed and half of the shoots were rooted out; how Janet’s hens dug up the rest of them the morning they escaped from Natalie’s vegetable gardens. The most recent complaint was the lawn grass. It grew so fast and shot up so tall that no mower was yet made that could plow through it. Norma did not add here that she had postponed mowing the lawns for more than a week, because she was so interested in landscaping the strip of ground beside the fence and making a water garden.
The story of Seizer’s sudden death and the cause of it, followed next in order, but scanty room was given to the account of Janet’s violent grief and the funeral she insisted upon having. She wrote the minutest description of how she helped ditch the bog and drain the spring water away from the lake. And how they prepared the rich soil that was going to be spread over the bottom of the lake to grow the lilies, iris and lotus, as well as other water plants. The islands, the bridges and the rocks were described and then followed the glad news that Mr. Ames thought the work would be completed in another day.
Just as Norma was going to end her letter she remembered she had said nothing of the bird houses and bees which played an important part in her flower gardening. But she mentioned the facts and said she would tell them all about the bird flats when next she wrote. As usual, she signed herself a loving daughter, then she added a postscript—to her the most important part of the letter:
“P. S.—Got Daddy’s check. Many thanks. Can use another soon, for my plants for fall and next spring planting.”