“There is one of the enemies you’ll have to fight if you make a garden,” said Daddy Blake with a smile.

“Who?” asked Hal.

“Your dog, Roly-Poly.  Dogs, when they get in a newly planted garden, often dig up the seeds, just as chickens do.  So from the start you’ll have to keep Roly-Poly away.”

“And chickens, too,” said Mab.  “They’ve got chickens next door.”

“Yes, but they are kept shut up in their yard, with a wire fence around it,” said Daddy Blake.  “However you must keep watch.  Now suppose we start and pick out what crops we want to raise for the prize of the ten dollar gold piece.  I have different kinds of seeds here—­corn, beans, tomatoes, radishes and others.”

“I want to raise beans!” cried Mab.  “Then I can have as many bean-bags as I want.”

“We mustn’t waste too many beans just for playing games, since beans make a good meal, especially for soldiers,” said Daddy Blake.  “And much of the food raised on farms and gardens will have to go to feed our soldiers.  So we’ll give Mab the first choice and let her raise beans.  What will you choose, Hal?”

“Corn, I guess,” Hal said.  “I like pop corn.”

“Well, we won’t raise much pop corn,” laughed his father.  “While that is good to eat it is not good for making corn bread, and that is the kind we may have to eat if we can’t raise enough wheat to make all the white bread we want.”

“Why can’t we raise wheat?” asked Hal.

“Well, we could grow a little, for it would grow in our garden as well as in any other soil or dirt,” explained Daddy Blake.  “But to raise a lot of wheat, or other grains, a big field is needed—­a regular farm—­and we haven’t that.”

“Will you take us to a farm some day?” asked Mab.

“Yes, after you learn how to make a garden,” his father told him.  “So you think you want to try corn; eh?” and he laid a package of that seed in front of the little boy.

“If Mab raises beans and Hal grows corn we’ll have succotash at any rate,” said Mother Blake.  “And succotash is good to can and keep all Winter.”

“Well, we may have enough to eat, after all, from our garden,” said Aunt Lolly.  “I think I’ll raise pumpkins for my share of the new game.”

“Then we can have Jack-o-lanterns!” laughed Hal.  “That will be fun!”

“Now look here!” exclaimed; Daddy Blake.  “I want you children to have some fun in your gardens, but is isn’t all fun.  There is going to be hard work, too, if anyone wins this prize,” and he held up the ten dollar gold piece.  “You may have one pumpkin for a Hallowe’en lantern, maybe, but pumpkin pies are what Aunt Lolly is thinking of, I guess.”

“Indeed I am,” she said.  “When I was a girl we used to raise many pumpkins in the cornfield at home.  So I’ll raise my pumpkins between your rows of corn, Hal.”

“That’s the way to do it,” said Uncle Pennywait.

“I think I’ll raise potatoes.  They’re easy to grow if I can keep the bugs off them, and they’ll keep all winter.”