The Sandman: More Farm Stories  by Willliam J. Hopkins

The Little Garden Story

NCE upon a time there was a farm-house, and it was painted white and had green blinds; and it stood not far from the road. In the fence was a wide gate to let the wagons through to the barn. And the wagons, going through, had made a little track that led up past the kitchen door and past the shed and past the barn and past the orchard to the wheat-field.

Next to the orchard was the garden field. And in one corner of the garden field was a little square piece of it that had a fence around, so that it was a little garden. The bigness of it was just so that little John took ten long steps going across, each way. When little John asked Uncle John why there was a fence around that little garden, Uncle John didn't remember but he said that little John might have that little garden for his own, if he would like it. And he might plant anything he wanted to, and what grew there would be all his own, but he must take care of it himself. And little John was glad and said he would like it. When that happened, it was in the springtime, and Uncle John was just ploughing the garden field.

So little John got his hoe and his shovel from the shed, and he walked across the little track and across the grass place and across the big garden to his little garden. And he went in and began to dig the ground all up, to make it soft and fine. For the plough couldn't get into that little garden. It was hard work, digging, and little John got so tired that he had to stop and finish it the next day. Then he broke up all the lumps of dirt with his hoe and made it very fine and nice with his rake.

The next morning, little John asked Uncle John to give him some corn to plant. But Uncle John said he couldn't give away seed corn to farmers. He would sell some to little John, or he would lend him some. Little John couldn't buy any, so he said he would like to have his father lend him some, and he would pay it back when his own corn was ripe. So Uncle John laughed and let him have as much corn as he wanted.

Then little John took his little bag of corn, and he walked across the track and the grass place and the garden field to his own garden. And he began at one corner of the little garden, and he made five little holes in the soft dirt, just as he had seen Uncle John do, and in those holes he put grains of corn, one in each hole, and covered them over with dirt.

He made five little holes in the soft dirt.

Then he took a long step, as long as he could, and he made five other little holes and planted five other grains of corn. And that way he planted his whole garden with corn. Then he went away.

Every day, little John went to his garden, to see if the corn had come up, and to see that no crows came to eat the corn he had planted, and to see that weeds didn't grow. If any weeds grew, he would hoe them up and throw them away. And one morning, nearly two weeks after he had planted the corn, he came running back, and he saw Uncle John and he called out, "My corn's up and yours isn't." And that made Uncle John laugh, and he went with little John, and, sure enough, there were the little points of the blades of corn poking up through the dirt, pushing up little lumps of dirt ahead of them.

So little John's corn grew, faster and faster, and it got taller and taller. And every day little John went to his garden, and when he found any weeds there, he hoed them up and threw them away. And almost every day, he raked the dirt between the hills of corn, to make it fine, so that the water that was in the ground wouldn't dry out. For the corn needed to have the dirt a little wet where the roots were, or it couldn't grow. And the corn stalks got as high as little John's head, and then they got a good deal higher than his head, and at last the tassels came at the top.

After the tassels came at the top of the stalks of corn, the ears of corn began to grow lower down. Each stalk had one or two or three ears on it, and each ear came just where one of the long leaves came out of the stalk, and the ear of corn was wrapped up in a case of green leaves, very tightly. And the ears of corn got bigger and bigger and fatter and fatter, but they were all soft. Little John knew they were soft, because he felt of all of them every day, to see. And when the ears of corn were pretty big, but before they were hard, the woodchucks began to come.

Woodchucks like corn, and they know where it is planted, because they go around and find out. And when they found little John's corn, they waited until it was big enough for them to eat, and then they tried to steal some of it. They did steal some of it, before little John knew they were there. But after that he watched very carefully and he set traps for them, twitch-ups and every other kind he knew about. And he caught a good many in his traps. When a woodchuck was caught in his trap, Uncle John took it and carried it away.

At last, when the summer was all over, the tassels got all yellow and brown, and little John knew the corn was ripe, for the leaves were beginning to wither, too. So he wondered how he could cut it down. He wasn't big enough or strong enough to cut it himself, with the heavy, sharp knives, and he went to Uncle John and asked him if he would please to cut his corn down for him. And Uncle John said he couldn't afford to work for other farmers for nothing, but he would cut it down for three ears of corn. So little John laughed and said he would give three ears of corn for cutting it.

Then Uncle John took his heavy knife and he went to the little garden and cut down all little John's corn stalks. And little John pulled the ears of corn off the stalks and he pulled the tight case of leaves from each ear. The leaves weren't so tight on the ears when the corn was ripe. Then he put all the ears of corn into the wheelbarrow and he wheeled the wheelbarrow across the garden field and across the grass place and across the little track to the barn. There he sat down on a milking stool and he rubbed all the grains of corn off and put them into bags. And the cobs he left in the wheelbarrow. The cobs are the parts of the ears of corn that are left after the grains of corn have all been rubbed off. Some of them they ground up for the cows to eat, with meal and hay, and some of them they burned.

When little John had rubbed all the corn off the cobs and put it into bags, he paid Uncle John corn enough for cutting the stalks, and then he paid as much corn as Uncle John had lent him to plant. And after he had paid all that corn, he had a good deal left in bags, and that he put in the place where they kept the things for market. And when Uncle John went to market, he carried little John's corn, and he sold it to the market man. The money the market man gave him for little John's corn he gave to little John, to have for his own. And he could buy anything he wanted to with it.

And that's all.