Margery liked it, because
now the garden began to look LIKE a
garden.
But best of all was the work next day,
when her own little particular garden was
begun. Father Brown loved Margery and
Margery's mother so much that he wanted
their garden to be perfect, and that meant
a great deal more work. He knew very
well that the old grass would begin to
come through again on such "green"
soil, and that it would make terribly hard
weeding. He was not going to have any
such thing for his two "little girls," as he
called them. So he fixed that little garden
very fine! This is what he did.
After he had thrown out all the turf, he
shoveled clean earth on to the garden,--
as much as three solid inches of it; not a
bit of grass was in that. Then it was ready
for raking and fertilizing, and for the lines.
The little footpaths were marked out by
Father Brown's feet; Margery and her
mother laughed well when they saw it, for
it looked like some kind of dance. Mr.
Brown had seen gardeners do it when he
was a little boy, and he did it very nicely:
he walked along the sides of the square,
with one foot turned a little out, and the
other straight, taking such tiny steps that
his feet touched each other all the time.
This tramped out a path just wide enough
for a person to walk.
The wider path was marked with lines
and raked.
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