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One morning in the early spring when Betty came down to breakfast, she found some wee paper bags beside her plate.
Betty picked up one of the little bags and opened it. She found many tiny seeds inside.
“These seeds are for your own little garden,” said Betty’s mother.
“Am I going to have a garden?” asked Betty.
“Yes,” said Mother, “the ground is ready for you now. Eat your breakfast, and then you can run and look at your garden.”
As soon as Betty had finished her breakfast, she ran out to her mother’s garden. There she saw her flower bed. The soft black earth was ready for the seeds. A little rake and hoe were waiting for her, too.
Mother came and showed Betty how to plant the seeds. Then the little girl dug holes, put the seeds in, and covered them up in their warm beds.
“I see that the rain is coming,” said Mother. “Your seeds will have a drink. Soon they will wake up and push their heads out of the ground. Then they will grow and grow, just as boys and girls grow.”
Betty did not have to wait long to see the little heads peeping up. She saw something else growing besides the leaflets of her plants. The weeds had come up, and she had to pull them out. Then she killed some bugs that wanted to eat her plants.
The little plants grew in thick green rows. When Betty’s mother saw them, she began to pull out some.
“Oh, Mother!” Betty cried, “you are pulling up my plants. Those are not weeds.”
“I know they are plants, Betty,” her mother answered. “But they are too thick, and we must thin them out. We will pull some out of every row. Then each little plant will have room to grow, and your flowers will bloom sooner.”
Betty helped her mother thin out the plants. The little girl worked in her garden every day, and by and by it was a beautiful sight.
She had many kinds of lovely flowers. She had four-o’clocks, sweet peas, forget-me-nots, daisies, and others.
One day in the summer Betty came running into the house.
“Mother,” she cried, “all the children are having shops and selling things. May I have a shop, too?”
“Why are the children having shops, Betty?”
“Oh,” answered Betty, “they are going to take the money they get and send poor chil- dren to the country for a week.”
“Do you know why the children need to go to the country, dear?”
“Yes, Mother, May told me. She says they live in the city, where it is hot, and they get sick. They need to go to the country, where they can play in the cool grass, and have nice fresh vegetables to eat.”
“Yes, that is true. I think it will be fine if you can help some poor children. What kinds of shops are the children having?”
Betty answered, “Some are selling candies, and some are selling ice-cream. Others are selling vegetables from their gardens. Dora is selling paper dolls that she made and dressed. What do you think I could sell, Mother?”
“You may sell your flowers,” said Mother.
Betty was so happy that she clapped her hands and danced.
The next day Father made a place in the yard for her to sell her flowers. He placed a table and a bench in the shade.
Every morning after that, Betty picked her very best flowers and put them in bowls on the table.
She sold so many that she earned enough money to send two little girls to the country for a week. How happy she was that she could do this!
And how happy the little girls were, out in the country, sleeping, playing in the sunshine, eating good food, and drinking fresh milk!
—— Josephine Scribner Gates