Spring Sprouts (2 page)

A
fter supper Molly’s dad showed her where she could plant a garden.

“The sun will be there every morning,” said Mr. Duff.

Molly raked the garden. Then she made straight lines with a ruler just as Mrs. Peters had. She put in a little fertilizer that her dad had given her.

Mrs. Peters hadn’t talked about fertilizer. Maybe it was a secret trick. To make the seeds grow. To get the badge faster.

Molly hoped it wasn’t cheating.

Molly dropped the seeds along the ruler. Nice and straight. Not too deep. Not too close together.

Then she covered the seeds with a little dirt and patted them down.

Pat, pat, pat.

“Grow fast,” she said to the seeds. She watered them with the hose.

Now I have to wait, she thought. Hurry up and wait. She stared at the smooth dirt for a long time. Then she went inside.

Every morning before school Molly ran out to look at her garden. Every morning it looked the same.

Flat and black.

Ants crawled over it.

Angleworms crawled through it.

But nothing else happened.

After school one day Molly and Mary Beth and Lisa looked for pictures for their scrapbooks. They looked through magazines for pictures of fruits and vegetables.

The girls were on Mary Beth’s front porch. It was another warm spring day.

“Here’s spaghetti,” said Lisa.

“Spaghetti isn’t a fruit or a vegetable,”
said Molly. “It doesn’t even grow in a garden.”

“So, I can still use it,” said Lisa. She started to cut it out. It looked so good.

“Yum,” said Lisa. “I want spaghetti in my book.”

“You can’t,” said Molly. “What would you put under it, vitamin S?”

The girls laughed.

Down the street they saw Roger coming toward them. He was riding on his bike.

“Hey,” he said when he got close. He dragged his feet and came to a stop. “What’s the difference between a new penny and an old dime?” he asked.

“You told us last week,” said Mary Beth. “Nine cents.”

“Oh, yeah. I forgot,” said Roger. “I’ll go tell Patty. She’ll laugh at anything I say.”

He rode on down the street.

On Tuesday Mrs. Peters asked, “Is anyone’s garden up yet?”

Rachel waved her hand. “Mine is, Mrs. Peters! My radishes have little green leaves!”

“How could yours come up so fast?” asked Molly.

“My dad started seeds in the house a month ago,” Rachel admitted. “Then we put them outside.”

“That’s cheating,” whispered Tracy. “She got a head start.”

“They aren’t even her own radishes,” whispered Lisa.

“Keep your eyes on your gardens,” said Mrs. Peters. “Water them every day. This hot weather will bring your seeds up fast.”

Then the Pee Wee Scouts shared their scrapbooks. They held up the pictures of the brightly colored vegetables.

“I can’t find any beans,” said Patty.

“I can’t find anything with vitamin C,” said Tim.

“C is easy,” said Kenny. “Oranges have vitamin C. There are lots of pictures of oranges.”

Molly tried to remember that. If orange began with a
c
, it would be easier.

After the scrapbooks were put away, the Pee Wee Scouts told about the good deeds they had done during the past week.

“I mowed the yard with my dad,” said Roger. “We filled about a zillion garbage bags with grass.”

“I painted the fence in our yard,” said Patty.

“Me too,” said Kenny, Patty’s twin brother. “We painted together.”

It would be fun to be a twin, thought Molly. Molly was an only child.

Tim was waving his hand.

“Yes, Tim,” said Mrs. Peters.

“I picked dandelion leaves for supper,” he said.

The Scouts snickered. They made gagging noises.

“Yuck!” said Rachel.

“Gross,” said Kevin.

Mrs. Peters held up her hand. “Dandelion greens make a good salad,” she said.
“And they can be cooked too. They are loaded with vitamins. Tim did a good deed. And he found a new vegetable for his scrapbook.”

“I’m going to pick dandelions tonight,” said Rachel.

“So am I, we’ve got lots,” said Tracy. “I’ll bring some next week.”

“It’s Tim’s good deed,” said Mrs. Peters. “I think we should let Tim have the dandelion deed.”

Then Mrs. Peters added, “Next week I have a surprise for you. Be here right on time. Wear jeans. That’s all I’m going to tell you.”

“Are we going to the zoo?” asked Kevin.

“Is it another Pee Wee weenie roast?” shouted Roger.

Mrs. Peters held up her hand. She smiled. “It’s a surprise,” she said.

They sang their Pee Wee Scout song.

They said their Pee Wee Scout pledge.

But all they could think about was the surprise. Molly hoped the week would go fast. She was so curious!

“Knock, knock,” said Roger as the Scouts left.

“Knock, knock!” he said more loudly.

“Who’s there?” said Patty.

“Ether,” said Roger.

“Ether who?” said Patty.

“Ether Bunny!” Roger roared. “It’s an Easter joke, get it? Ether bunny?”

“Easter is over,” said Rachel.

“So?” said Roger. “It’s still funny.”

But the Scouts had other things on their minds. Things like seeds and scrap-books and surprises.

Mostly surprises!

A
fter school, Wednesday, Molly ran home to check her garden. Nothing yet. She stamped her foot. When would those radishes come up?

On Thursday Kevin ran all the way to school. Some Pee Wee Scouts were outside talking together.

“My garden’s up!” he shouted, out of breath. “My carrots are growing.”

“Great,” said Mary Beth.

“You’re the first one,” said Patty. “Except Rachel.”

Molly felt angry. If she couldn’t be first, she at least wanted to be second.

Lisa and Tracy looked mad too. They didn’t look happy for Kevin.

At noon the Scouts walked by Kevin’s house on their way home to lunch. He took them into his backyard.

“I don’t see anything,” said Tim.

“Right here,” said Kevin, getting down on the ground and pointing.

Molly got down on her knees. She squinted. She got very close to the ground. She could see something very little. Something barely there. Barely green.

“It’s them!” boasted Kevin. “It’s my carrots!”

“You can’t see them when you stand up,” said Rachel.

Kevin didn’t care. He knew they were there.

On Sunday it was very hot. In the evening Molly watered her radishes.

Her grandma said plants like it when you talk to them. Molly tried it. She told the radishes to hurry up and grow.

“Come on, little radishes,” Molly said. “You have lots of water and lots of sun. I need you to get my badge. Please grow big and fat.” Molly got down on the ground. “Please, please, please!” she said.

The garden didn’t answer.

But Molly’s next-door neighbor did! Mrs. Berry was shaking a dust mop. She called to Molly, “Did you say something?”

Molly shook her head. “I was talking to my garden,” she said.

“Come and talk to mine too,” said Mrs. Berry. “Only my rhubarb is up so far.”

Molly ducked into the house. Mrs. Berry was laughing at her. Molly felt silly.

At last, on Tuesday morning before school, when Molly looked at her garden something was there! Something green!

“My radishes!” she screamed to her mother. “My radishes are up!”

“Good for you!” said Mrs. Duff.

They were barely up, but they were there. Tiny thin green leaves. It was good that I talked to them, Molly thought. And watered them. Just in time too. They grew on Pee Wee Scout day.

Molly ran all the way to school. She bounced in her seat all day waiting for three o’clock.

She didn’t want to read.

She didn’t want to subtract.

She didn’t want to draw pictures.

She wanted to tell Mrs. Peters that her garden was growing!

At recess the other Scouts weren’t interested in gardens. “I wonder what our surprise is,” said Lisa.

Molly had almost forgotten about the surprise.

“I’ll bet it’s a picnic,” said Kenny. Kenny liked picnics.

“I know what it is,” boasted Sonny. “Because my mom is the assistant Scout leader.”

“That isn’t fair,” said Tracy.

“Your mom shouldn’t tell you Scout secrets,” muttered Molly.

“Why not?” said Sonny.

“Because it’s not fair,” said Mary Beth. “Molly’s right.”

“Yeah,” said Molly, but Sonny knew the secret anyway.

Sonny had overalls on. “Because of the surprise,” he said.

At three o’clock the Scouts rushed out of the school. They dashed to Mrs. Peters’s. Molly was all out of breath when they got there.

“My garden is up!” she blurted out.

“So is mine,” said Mary Beth.

“Mine too,” said Lisa.

“Wonderful!” said Mrs. Peters, throwing her hands into the air in excitement. “I told you it would be soon!”

“Mine isn’t up,” said Tim.

“Maybe you planted the seeds deeper, Tim. It will just take a little longer then.”

Next Mrs. Peters said, “Now that so many gardens are up, we will all wait to see who brings in the first radish and the first carrot.”

Molly jumped up and down thinking about that. She was going to talk to her
radishes every day. And water them. Soak them. Drown them. They liked water, and she would give them plenty.

“Now!” said Mrs. Peters. “Today is our surprise!”

Mrs. Betz was there. She had overalls on too.

She and Sonny looked like twins.

A baby-sitter was there too. To take care of Nick. The Scouts sat like statues, waiting for the news.

“Today,” said Mrs. Peters, “we are going to visit a dairy farm.”

Roger put his fingers in his mouth and gave a long whistle. Then he frowned. “You mean Dairy Queen?” he asked.

“No, a dairy farm,” said Mrs. Peters. “Where cows are raised for their milk. The cows give milk and the milk is sold to a milk company and the milk company sells it to stores. First it is sterilized and
pasteurized and put into cartons. Some is made into cheese and ice cream. Then your parents buy it.”