“Would there be any objection to my offering a small prize?” asked Mr. Emerson.

“None at all.”

“Then I’d like to give some packages of seeds—­as many as you think would be suitable—­to the partners who make the most progress in the first month.”

“And I’d like to give a bundle of flower seeds to the border that is in the most flourishing condition by the first of August,” added Mrs. Emerson.

“And the United Service Club would like to give some seeds for the earliest crop of vegetables harvested from any plot,” promised Roger, taking upon himself the responsibility of the offer which he was sure the other members would confirm.

Mr. Wheeler thanked them all and assured them that notice of the prizes would be given at once so that the competition might add to the present enthusiasm.

“Though it would be hard to do that,” he concluded, smiling with satisfaction.

“No fair planting corn in the kitchen and transplanting it the way I’m doing at home,” decreed Roger, enlarging his stipulations concerning the Club offer.

“I understand; the crop must be raised here from start to finish,” replied Mr. Wheeler.

The interest of the children in the garden and of their parents and the promoters in general in the improvement that they had made in the old town dump was so great that the Ethels were inspired with an idea that would accomplish even more desirable changes.  The suggestion was given at one of the Saturday meetings of the Club.

“You know how horrid the grounds around the railroad station are,” Ethel Blue reminded them.

“There’s some grass,” objected Roger.

“A tiny patch, and right across the road there are ugly weeds.  I think that if we put it up to the people of Rosemont right now they’d be willing to do something about making the town prettier by planting in a lot of conspicuous places.”

“Where besides the railroad station?” inquired Helen.

“Can you ask?  Think of the Town Hall!  There isn’t a shrub within a half mile.”

“And the steps of the high school,” added Ethel Brown.  “You go over them every day for ten months, so you’re so accustomed to them that you don’t see that they’re as ugly as ugly.  They ought to have bushes planted at each side to bank them from sight.”

“I dare say you’re right,” confessed Helen, while Roger nodded assent and murmured something about Japan ivy.

“Some sort of vine at all the corners would be splendid,” insisted Ethel Brown.  “Ethel Blue and Dorothy and I planted Virginia Creeper and Japan ivy and clematis wherever we could against the graded school building; didn’t we tell you?  The principal said we might; he took the responsibility and we provided the plants and did the planting.”

“He said he wished we could have some rhododendrons and mountain laurel for the north side of the building, and some evergreen azalea bushes, but he didn’t know where we’d get them, because he had asked the committee for them once and they had said that they were spending all their money on the inside of the children’s heads and that the outside of the building would have to look after itself.”