CHAPTER LII

THE MONEY THE CHILDREN MADE

“ELEANOR, if you’re going to ‘market garden’ with Billy and me, you’ll have to get up right away.”

Mary Frances shook her little friend into wakefulness.

“Mar-ket—gar-den-ing?” yawned Eleanor, stretching. Then sitting up, “Oh, yes, I remember now, Mary Frances! How stupid of me! It’s Saturday! My, I’m sorry I overslept!”

“Never mind, girlie, but hurry up and dress. Billy’s already out in the garden putting things in the wheelbarrow.”

They didn’t take much time for making a fancy toilet, and were soon out in the play house garden with Billy.

“Hello, girls,” he called. “Aren’t these green peppers beauties?” holding some up.

“Green peppers!” said Eleanor. “Why, lots of those green peppers are red!”

“Oh, you’re no Italian,” laughed Billy, “or you would know that most green peppers turn red when ripe enough.”

“What else have we to-day?” asked Mary Frances. “Of course we have our parsley, and lettuce, and tomatoes, and ‘pot herbs.’”

“And cabbage, and carrots, and beans, and cucumbers,” added Billy.

“And egg-plants!” Eleanor was proud to be able to add a name to the list.

“All the articles mentioned, Ma’am,” said Billy, pretending to offer them for sale.

“I’ll buy everything you have,” answered Eleanor, “if you’ll sell for a penny.”

“‘Said the piggy, “I won’t!”’” Mary Frances misquoted, “and I don’t blame Billy, for we’ve made lots of money this Summer.”

“Yes, I know,” said Eleanor; “from the times I’ve been out with you selling garden truck, you must have quite a fortune by now.”

“Oh, say——” began Billy.

“What?” asked Mary Frances.

“Why, I was just thinking that since Eleanor was always helping us so much, she ought to share in the profits.”

“Wouldn’t that be fine!” Mary Frances hugged her friend in delight.

“No.” Eleanor shook her head. “If you divide among three, you won’t make money nearly as fast.”

“We’ve done so well that we won’t mind going a little more slowly,” said Billy. “Shall we tell what a pile we have in the bank, Mary Frances?”

“Oh, Billy, you know I’m crazy to tell her!”

“Well,” Billy took a book from his pocket, “last Saturday night we had forty-four dollars and fifty-seven cents, and Mrs. Dailey owes us two dollars and nineteen cents.”

“Oh, Billy, did you two make that much in this short time?” Eleanor could scarcely believe her ears.

“More than that!” Mary Frances exulted. “And we’ve paid Billy back the money we borrowed from his ‘prize money’ for seeds.”

“Let me see. Forty-four and two are forty-six,” said Eleanor. “You may have sixty dollars by cold weather!”

“More likely seventy, Billy?” asked Mary Frances.

“I’ve heard of counting dollars before they were hatched,” Billy laughed.

“Is Nell a partner from now on?” asked Mary Frances.

“Yes,” Billy said, “if she helps, she shares in the profits—but, gee, I wish Bob was here!”

“Well, you know he’s coming soon!” said Mary Frances, “and, besides, you’ll be together the whole school year!”

“Say, you girls get to work!” exclaimed Billy, and they flew to gather parsley, and tiny little red peppers, and thyme, and leeks, out of which Mary Frances made penny bunches of pot herbs, while Eleanor tied some three-cent and five-cent bunches of the parsley.

“Are we ready now?” asked Eleanor as Billy piled the wheelbarrow high with vegetables.

“No, indeedy!” Mary Frances exclaimed. “Now, it’s my turn. Come on out into the front garden and help me gather my bouquets.”

“Let me see the order book, Billy, please?” she asked.

“Oh, yes, Doctor Hopewell wants roses, larkspurs, and baby’s breath; Mr. Courtley asked for sweet peas. As we have only the perennial kind which have no odor, I shall put a sprig of lemon verbena with them. Aren’t they beautiful?” as she began to gather them. “I just believe Mr. Courtley is going to give them to Miss Constance. Last Sunday she wore to church the bunch of tufted pansies he bought of me on Saturday.”

“Nell, you gather yellow flowers to-day. Isn’t that right, Mary Frances?”

He handed her a basket.

“In that,” Mary Frances nodded. “You’ll find scissors inside the play house door.”

Eleanor was soon cutting perennial sunflowers and coreopsis.

“Billy, get some blue flowers to put with the coreopsis?” Mary Frances called after a minute, and Billy began to cut some eupatorium.

“Isn’t this a charming bouquet!” exclaimed Eleanor as she arranged the blue and yellow flowers.

They all admired it, but they voted the pink roses, and larkspur, and baby’s breath the most beautiful of all.

“Now, we’re ready to start!” Billy led off with the wheelbarrow, the girls following with baskets of the herbs and flowers.

“Have you planned to do anything special with the money, Mary Frances?” asked Eleanor.

“Well, for one thing, I shall save a good deal for seeds and plants in the Spring, and Billy says we’ll plant bulbs in the Fall. That will cost quite a little.”

“And we’re planning to make a hotbed and a cold frame,” broke in Billy, who overheard.

“And when we started gardening I borrowed quite a little sum for seeds from my savings account—with Mother’s permission. I have to put that back,” Mary Frances added.

“Money, like all good things,” Billy looked wise, “should be taken care of!”

“Oh, you miser, Billy!” Mary Frances playfully shook her finger.

“Isn’t it strange what funny ideas some people have of how things grow?” remarked Billy. “A city chap at school told me he had always thought that cabbages grew on vines and potatoes were picked off bushes!”

“Well, if he never saw them growing, how could he know?” Mary Frances reasoned after they stopped laughing.

“That’s right!” teased Billy. “Stand up for him.”

By that time they were in the heart of the village, and had very soon sold everything, for the village people had become accustomed to look for the children.

“Every vegetable you bring is so fresh that we wait to buy of you,” several said.

“Splendid luck to-day,” commented Billy, on the way home.

“Have you saved the things your mother ordered?” asked Eleanor.

“Of course,” answered Billy. “You don’t suppose we’d neglect one of our first and best paying customers.”

“Mother is a dear!” said Mary Frances. “So is Father! They must wonder why they haven’t been invited to see our gardens.”

“When are you going to ask them?” Eleanor inquired.

“Why, don’t you remember? When we give our garden party.”

“That’s to be about the first of September, I believe,” said Billy.