"May I help?" Margery asked, when
she saw how pretty it was.
"If you watch me sow one row, I think
you can do the next," said her father.
So Margery watched. Her father took a
handful of kernels, and, stooping, walked
slowly along the line, letting the kernels
fall, five or six at a time, in spots about a
foot apart; he swung his arm with a gentle,
throwing motion, and the golden seeds
trickled out like little showers, very
exactly. It was pretty to watch; it made
Margery think of a photograph her teacher
had, a photograph of a famous picture
called "The Sower." Perhaps you have
seen it.
Putting in the seed was not so easy to do
as to watch; sometimes Margery got in too
much, and sometimes not enough; but
her father helped fix it, and soon she did
better.
They planted peas, beans, spinach,
carrots, and parsnips. And Margery's father
made a row of holes, after that, for the
tomato plants. He said those had to be
transplanted; they could not be sown from
seed.
When the seeds were in the trenches
they had to be covered up, and Margery
really helped at that. It is fun to do it.
You stand beside the little trench and
walk backward, and as you walk you hoe
the loose earth back over the seeds; the
same dirt that was hoed up you pull back
again. Then you rake very gently over
the surface, with the back of a rake, to
even it all off.
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