So
Margery did not see any more done until
the next day.
But the next day there was hard work
for Margery's father! Every bit of that
"scrambled" turf had to be broken up
still more with a mattock and a spade,
and then the pieces which were full of
grass-roots had to be taken on a fork and
shaken, till the earth fell out; then the
grass was thrown to one side. That would
not have had to be done if the land had
been ploughed in the fall; the grass would
have rotted in the ground, and would have
made fertilizer for the plants. Now,
Margery's father put the fertilizer on the top,
and then raked it into the earth.
At last, it was time to make the place for
the seeds. Margery and her mother helped.
Father tied one end of a cord to a little
stake, and drove the stake in the ground
at one end of the garden. Then he took
the cord to the other end of the garden
and pulled it tight, tied it to another stake,
and drove that down. That made a straight
line for him to see. Then he hoed a trench,
a few inches deep, the whole length of the
cord, and scattered fertilizer in it. Pretty
soon the whole garden was in lines of
little trenches.
"Now for the corn," said father.
Margery ran and brought the seed
box, and found the package of corn. It
looked like kernels of gold, when it was
opened.
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