The First Day in the Country

W HEN they arrived at Ash Grove, Willy went into the house to see his new nursery, as he called it. He found Ann there, very busy unpacking the trunks; and when he had looked about him a little, he said—"This is not a new nursery—it is my old nursery. I remember the closet where I kept my toys; and that is your bed, Ann; and that is my little bed. But there is another little bed—I suppose that is for Sophy; and another large one, that must be for nurse: but I do not remember them."

"No," said Ann, "because they were not here last summer. Sister Sophy was not born, and there was no other nurse than me."

"Ah, Ann, look!—there is the balcony where we used to go and see Papa and Mamma set off on horseback; and where we used to go and see them come back again, as soon as we heard the horses' feet go trot, trot! canter, canter!"

"Well, Willy," said Ann, "you must not interrupt me now, I am so busy; but you may unpack your box of toys, and put them in your closet."

This was a nice job for Willy. He did not pull them out of the box, and throw them into the closet any how, for he remembered how his toys had been broken by not taking care of them in packing; and he had been so sorry for it, that he resolved, in unpacking, to take as much care of them as he could. He placed each of them on a shelf; one of the dolls, it is true, he seated upright so near the edge, that it fell down, and broke its nose. But that Willy did not much mind: the doll could ride in the cart as well with a broken nose as with a whole one; but the cart could not go on while one of the wheels was off—that was much worse!

When the toys were all put in the closet, Willy went into the garden. He was very impatient to see Johnny, and all the pretty blossoms which covered the trees when last he was at Ash Grove; and he was disappointed to find that the flowers were almost all of them dead: he saw their little coloured leaves strewed upon the ground, dry and withered.—"Oh, how sorry I am!" cried Willy; "all the pretty flowers are gone."

"But," said Johnny, "see what they have left behind! Here is the apple tree that you tried to break a bough off: look what a number of little apples are hanging upon it!"

Willy had not observed them, because they were green, like the leaves of the tree.—"They are funny little bits of apples," said he; "but they do not look nice."

"No," replied Johnny; "they are not ripe yet: they will take a long time to grow large and to ripen. But, look, here is a cherry tree: the cherries will be ripe much sooner, though they are as green as the apples."

"And is there nothing ripe now?" asked Willy.

"Oh, yes, there is," cried Johnny; "the strawberries are ripe: I will run and ask Mark if we may gather some."

So they went on to the strawberry-beds. Willy at first thought there was nothing but leaves in these beds; but Johnny showed him that, underneath the leaves, there was a very pretty-looking fruit, which seemed to be quite ripe.

The gardener allowed them to gather some; and gave Willy a large cabbage-leaf to put some in for his Mamma. Willy only tasted one now and then; for he was in haste to fill the cabbage-leaf, to carry it to her.

As they were gathering strawberries, she came into the garden, and he called out—"Come here, pray, Mamma, and see what nice strawberries I have got for you. Mark allowed me to gather them; for Johnny says that nobody must take any fruit without his leave."

Johnny was now called away to help Mark to carry vegetables to the cook to dress for dinner; and Willy and his Mamma sat down upon a pretty green bench to eat the strawberries.

"Are they not very good, Mamma?" said he.

"Yes, my dear, excellent: and I like them the better because you gathered some of them for me."

"What a nice cabbage-leaf this is!" said Willy; "it holds the strawberries as well as a plate."

"I think it holds them better," replied his Mother; "for you see the edges curl up all round, and keep the strawberries in, like a basket."

When they had finished eating the fruit, they saw Johnny carrying a basket full of cabbages, cut ready for boiling.

"What have you got in the basket?" said Willy: "they look like great balls to play with?"

"Oh, no; they are cabbages for dinner."

"How I should like to have one to roll about!" said Willy.

His Mamma allowed him to take one, and he played with it for some time; he could only roll it on the ground, for it was too heavy to toss up in the air. When he was tired of this, he sat down and began to examine how it was made; and, for this purpose, he did as most children do, he began to pull it to pieces.

He soon called out to his Mother, who was gathering flowers: "Oh, do come and see my ball; it is made all of great leaves, folded one over the other—one over the other," repeated he, as he pulled off the leaves: "such a number! I could never count them.—Why, Mamma, it is just like the buds we used to cut open, a long while ago, only a great deal larger."

"That cabbage is really a bud," said his Mother.

"Is it, indeed?" replied Willy, astonished to see a bud so prodigiously large. "I wonder whether there is a flower in the inside? and he went on tearing off the leaves to get to the middle. Finding that it would take a long time to strip off all the leaves, he asked his Mamma if she would cut it open with her penknife. "It would not be nearly large enough," said she; "but here is Mark coming, and he will do it with his garden knife." Mark cut the cabbage in two through the middle in an instant; and Willy and his Mamma looked for the flower, or rather the little thing which was one day to grow into a flower; but they could not find it out, and his Mamma told him that he must remember to go and see the flower when the bud was open and the flower blown."

"Mamma," said Willy, "what a great tree these large buds must grow upon!"

"I should not like to walk under such a tree," replied she, smiling; "for if the wind blowed, and these heavy buds were to fall upon our heads, we should be sadly bruised."

"Do show me the tree they grow upon, Mamma, and we will not go under it, that the buds may not fall upon us."

"They grow on no tree, my dear, but each bud has a stalk and a root all to itself." She then took Willy to the bed of cabbages, and pulled up one to show him the stalk and the roots.

Willy was quite surprised to see a large bud like the cabbage growing in the ground, without any tree or branch to hang upon. "And look, Mamma," said he, "here are a great many large leaves growing round the cabbage, like the leaf we had to put our strawberries in."

"These leaves," said she, "were once closely folded round the cabbage, as the inside leaves now are; but as the cabbage grows the leaves spread out; and, by and by, these leaves, which are now folded over one another will also spread out; and when they are all spread, the flower in the middle will grow and blossom."

"But," said Willy, "if Mark cuts them all for dinner, the flowers will never blow."

"We always keep some to run to seed," said Mark.

"What does that mean?" enquired Willy.

"Why, Sir, we cannot get the seed unless we keep the cabbage till the flower blows, and the seed ripens."

"The seed grows in the flower," said his Mother; "and when the flower dies, and falls off, the seed remains and ripens."

"That is just like the fruit, Mamma, that comes after the flower is gone away."

"Very much like it," said she; "some plants have no other fruit but seeds."

"And are the seeds of cabbages good to eat?"

"No," replied she; "but Mark wants them to sow in the ground, that cabbages may grow up from them another summer."

"And why do you not send the large leaves that are spread out to cook for dinner?" said Willy to Mark.

"They are not good to eat like the inside leaves," replied he.

"What are these great stripes that go all up the leaf, Mamma?"

"It is through them," said she, "that the water goes, and spreads itself all over the leaf to feed it; such large leaves want a great deal of water to nourish them."

Mamma then said that it was now time for Willy to go in to read his lesson; and though he was very sorry to leave the garden, he thought that after all the pleasure he had had there, he ought to be a very good child, and go in willingly to his lesson.