"now children," began daddy blake, as the table was cleared of the dishes, when supper had been finished, "i'll start to tell you about the garden game we are going to play."

"oh, are you going to play it, too?" asked hal in delight "won't that be fun, mab?"

"lots of fun!"

anything daddy blake did was fun for hal and mab, whether it was playing a game, or taking them somewhere.

eagerly the two children watched while their father opened the package he had brought up from down town when he came home to supper.

"is it some kind of a puzzle?" hal wanted to know.

"does it go around with wheels?" asked mab, as she heard something rattle inside the paper.

"how many can play it?" asked hal.

"oh, as many as care to" answered daddy blake. i'm going to play it, and so is your mother, i think; and uncle pennywait, and aunt lollypop, and—no, i guess we can't let roly-poly play the garden game, but you two children can."

"oh, it must be a fine game if so many can play," laughed hal. "hurry, daddy, and show us what it is."

"do you play sides?" mab inquired.

"yes, you can play sides," her father answered with a smile. "as i told you i'm going to give a prize to whoever plays the game best. i'll tell you about it. now here's the first part of the garden," and, as mr. blake opened the paper fully, out rolled a small parcel. the string came off it, and hal and mab saw a lot of beans.

for a moment they looked very much disappointed.

"oh, daddy blake!" cried hal. "this isn't a new game at all! we've got a bean-bag one!"

"and we got tired of playing it to-day," went on mab, in disappointed tones.

"this isn't exactly a bean-bag game," said mr. blake with a smile, "though you can make it one if you like. it's ever so much more fun than just bean-bags, for there are many other different parts to the garden game. now if you'll sit down i'll tell you about it."

hal and mab saw some brightly colored pictures, among other things, in the big bag that had held the beans, and they thought perhaps they might have fun with the garden game after all.

some of you have met hal and mab blake before, on one or more of their many trips with daddy, so i do not need to tell all of you about the children. but to those of you who read this book as the beginning of the daddy series i may say that the first volume is called "daddy takes us camping." in that i told you how daddy and the two children went to live in a tent, and how they heard a queer noise in the night and—

well, i'll leave the rest for you to find out by reading the book. hal and mab lived with daddy and mother blake in a nice house in a small city, and with them lived uncle pennywait and aunt lollypop.

these were not their real names. uncle pennywait was called that because he so often said to hal and mab:

"wait a minute and i'll give you a penny!"

aunt lollypop was more often called aunt lolly, and the reason she had such a queer name was because she was always telling the children to buy lollypops with the money uncle pennywait gave them. lollypops, the children's aunt thought, were the best kind of candy for them, and perhaps she was right.

then there was roly-poly, the funny little poodle dog, and once when daddy blake took hal and mab skating, as you may read in that book, roly slid under the ice and was lost for a long, long time.

hal and mab just loved to go places with daddy, to learn about the birds, trees and flowers. they had gone to the circus with him, had gone coasting, and had hunted birds with a camera to take pictures of them. there is a book about each one of the different trips hal and mab took with their father. they had many adventures each time they went out, and they learned many things.

just before the story i am going to tell you now, daddy blake had taken the children to the woods, telling them about the different kinds of trees.

sometimes roly-poly went along with hal and mab when daddy started off with the children. once mab had a little cat that got lost up in a tree, and once her dickey bird flew away and it was a long time before she found one she loved as much as her first singing pet.

"but i don't see how you are going to take us anywhere, so we can have fun, just with beans," said hal, as he waited for his father to tell something about the new game.

"oh, it isn't just beans," said daddy blake. "see here are some radishes, lettuce, carrots, turnips, potatoes, beets and—"

"why it sounds just like a garden!" cried aunt lollypop, coming in from the hall at that moment.

"it's a garden game, but we don't know how to play it yet," said mab.

"that's what i'm going to teach you," spoke her father. "we are going to make a garden."

"where?" hal wanted to know.

"in our back yard and in the lot next door. i have hired that to use in planting our garden."

"how do you start to make a garden?" asked hal.

"that's part of the game you and mab must learn," said mr. blake. "now i'll begin at the beginning and tell you. i think you will like this game as well as any you have ever played, for not only will it be fun, but it will give you work to do, and the best fun in the world is learning to make fun of your work. and don't forget the prize!"

"what's the prize for?" asked hal.

"for the one who has the best little garden, whether it is hal, mab, uncle pennywait, aunt lolly, mother or myself. we're all going to play the garden game!"

"what is the prize going to be?" asked mab.

daddy blake thought for a moment. then he said:

"well, i suppose if you won the prize you would like it to be a nice doll."

"oh, i'd just love it!" cried mab with sparkling eyes.

"and hal would want a pair of skates or maybe a sled, for i think his old one is broken," went on daddy blake.

"it is," answered hal.

"so, as only one of us can win the prize, and as we would all want something different," spoke the children's father, "i think i'll make the prize a ten dollar gold piece, and whoever wins it can buy what they like with it."

"oh, that's great!" exclaimed hal.

"ten dollars!" added mab. "why i could buy a lot of dolls for that!"

"i hope you wouldn't spend all that money for dolls," said aunt lolly.

"no, save some for candy!" laughed uncle pennywait. "i'll give you a penny extra as my prize."

"we'll talk about spending the money when the prize is won," said daddy blake. "here it is," and he took from his pocket a bright, shining ten dollar gold piece. hal and mab looked at it.

"but everyone must work hard in the garden to win it," said mr. blake. "and, mind you! i may get my own prize, for i am going to work in the garden, too. we will each choose some one vegetable, and whoever raises the finest and best crop will get the prize."

"what made you think of this game for us?" asked hal.

"well, everyone is making gardens this year," said daddy blake. "you know we are at war, and in war time it is harder to get plenty of food than when we are at peace."

"why?" asked hal.

"because so many men have to go to be soldiers," his father answered. "the farmers and gardeners—thousands of them—have been called away to fight the enemy, so that we, who never before helped to grow things from the earth, must begin now if we are to have enough to eat and to feed our soldiers.

"that is why i am going to have a garden—larger than we ever had before. that is why many others who never had gardens before are going to have one this year. all over vacant lots and play-fields, and even some beautiful green, grassy lawns, are being turned into gardens. they will take the places of many gardens that have been turned into battle fields. we must raise more vegetables and fruits and we must save what we raise."

"why do we want to save it?" asked hal, "can't we eat it?"

"we will eat all we need," his father, "but you know that gardens and farms can only be planted, and fruits vegetables can only grow when the weather is warm. nothing grows in the cold winter. so we raise all we can in summer and save what we need to eat when snow is on the ground."

"how are we going to make our garden?" asked mab.

"and what am i going to plant?" asked hal.

"well, we'll begin at the very beginning," answered daddy blake. "the first part of any garden is getting the soil ready. that is the dirt, in which we plant the seeds, must be dug up and made soft and mellow so the seeds will grow."

"what makes seeds grow?" asked mab.

"and why can't we plant 'em anywhere?" hal wanted to know.

daddy blake laughed.

"you're going to have a lot of questions to answer about this garden game," said uncle pennywait. "you'll be kept busy."

"yes, i guess so," agreed daddy blake. "well i'll answer all the questions i can, for i want hal and mab to know how hard it is to make even one bean or radish grow from a seed. then, when they find out that it is not easy to have good vegetables, when the bugs, worms and weeds are fighting against them, they will not waste. for waste is wicked not only in war time but always."

"oh, daddy!" cried mab. "do the worms and bugs and weeds fight the things in the garden?"

"indeed they do," answered her father. "it is just like war all the while between the things we want to grow and the things we don't want."

"oh, if the garden game is like war i'm going to have fun playing it!" exclaimed hal, while roly-poly chased his tail around the table. i don't mean that the little poodle dog's tail came off and that he raced around trying to get hold of it again. no indeed! his tail just stayed on him, but he whirled around and around trying to get hold of it in his mouth, and he was having a good time doing it.

"there is one of the enemies you'll have to fight if you make a garden," said daddy blake with a smile.

"who?" asked hal.

"your dog, roly-poly. dogs, when they get in a newly planted garden, often dig up the seeds, just as chickens do. so from the start you'll have to keep roly-poly away."

"and chickens, too," said mab. "they've got chickens next door."

"yes, but they are kept shut up in their yard, with a wire fence around it," said daddy blake. "however you must keep watch. now suppose we start and pick out what crops we want to raise for the prize of the ten dollar gold piece. i have different kinds of seeds here—corn, beans, tomatoes, radishes and others."

"i want to raise beans!" cried mab. "then i can have as many bean-bags as i want."

"we mustn't waste too many beans just for playing games, since beans make a good meal, especially for soldiers," said daddy blake. "and much of the food raised on farms and gardens will have to go to feed our soldiers. so we'll give mab the first choice and let her raise beans. what will you choose, hal?"

"corn, i guess," hal said. "i like pop corn."

"well, we won't raise much pop corn," laughed his father. "while that is good to eat it is not good for making corn bread, and that is the kind we may have to eat if we can't raise enough wheat to make all the white bread we want."

"why can't we raise wheat?" asked hal.

"well, we could grow a little, for it would grow in our garden as well as in any other soil or dirt," explained daddy blake. "but to raise a lot of wheat, or other grains, a big field is needed—a regular farm—and we haven't that."

"will you take us to a farm some day?" asked mab.

"yes, after you learn how to make a garden," his father told him. "so you think you want to try corn; eh?" and he laid a package of that seed in front of the little boy.

"if mab raises beans and hal grows corn we'll have succotash at any rate," said mother blake. "and succotash is good to can and keep all winter."

"well, we may have enough to eat, after all, from our garden," said aunt lolly. "i think i'll raise pumpkins for my share of the new game."

"then we can have jack-o-lanterns!" laughed hal. "that will be fun!"

"now look here!" exclaimed; daddy blake. "i want you children to have some fun in your gardens, but is isn't all fun. there is going to be hard work, too, if anyone wins this prize," and he held up the ten dollar gold piece. "you may have one pumpkin for a hallowe'en lantern, maybe, but pumpkin pies are what aunt lolly is thinking of, i guess."

"indeed i am," she said. "when i was a girl we used to raise many pumpkins in the cornfield at home. so i'll raise my pumpkins between your rows of corn, hal."

"that's the way to do it," said uncle pennywait.

"i think i'll raise potatoes. they're easy to grow if i can keep the bugs off them, and they'll keep all winter."

"i'll raise tomatoes," said daddy blake, taking out a package of tomato seeds for his part of the garden. "we can eat them sliced in summer and have them canned, ready to stew, in winter, i'll have to plant some seeds in the house first to raise plants that i may set them out when it is warm enough. now, mother, what will you grow in the garden?"

"carrots," answered mrs. blake.

"oh, then we can keep a bunny rabbit!" cried mab. "i've always wanted a bunny."

"well, a rabbit may be nice," said daddy blake. "but, as i said, this garden is not all for fun. we are going to raise as many vegetables as we can, so we will have them in the winter to save buying them at the store. we can't afford to raise carrots for rabbits this year. there are your seeds, mother," and he gave his wife a packet with a picture of yellow carrots on the outside.

"but there are a lot of seeds left," said mab, as she looked at the large opened bundle on the table.

"yes, well have to take turns planting these," her father said. "i just wanted you to pick out your prize crops first. now we have made a start on our garden. the next thing is to get the ground ready as soon as it is warm enough. but first i think i'll start my tomato plants. i'll plant the seeds in the morning."

"where?" asked mab.

"in a box in the house. you may bring me in a little dirt and i'll let it dry out near the fire, for it is rather damp and cold yet in the garden."

the next day hal and mab brought in some dirt from the yard. it was wet and sticky but when it had been spread out on a paper under the stove it soon dried. that night daddy blake filled a big wooden box with the dirt, which he worked with a trowel until it was made fine and smooth.

"the first thing to learn in making a garden," the children's father said, "is to have your dirt made very fine, and to be sure that it is the right kind for what you are going to raise. beans will grow in almost any kind of soil, but tomatoes and other vegetables must have soil which is called richer—that is it has more fertilizer in it—something which is food to the seeds and plants as bread, butter, meat and potatoes are food for us."

"do plants eat?" asked hal.

"of course they do, just as i told you the trees did. plants eat through their roots in the earth. they drink water that way, too, and through their leaves. and they breathe in the air and sunlight the same way. plants, as well as boys and girls, need warm sun, enough water and good soil to make them grow."

"but why don't you plant the tomato seeds right in the garden?" asked hal.

"because it is a little too early. the weather is not warm enough and the ground is too damp. so i plant the seeds in the house and soon there will be many little tomato plants in this box, which, you children must see to it, must be kept in the sunny window, and not out in the cool air. when the plants are large enough we will take them from the box and put them in the garden in nice long rows. this is called transplanting, which means planting a second time, and is done with many garden things such as lettuce, cabbage and celery."

"but you didn't tell us what makes the seeds grow," said mab, as she watched her father carefully smooth the soil in the box and then scatter in the tomato seeds, afterward covering them up with a piece of window glass.

"i'll tell you as best i can, though no one really knows what is in the seed to make it grow. only mother nature knows that. but at least we have a start with our garden," said daddy blake, "and to-morrow i'll tell you, as well as i can, why a seed grows. it is time to go to bed now."

as hal and mab started up stairs, thinking what a wonderful thing it was to have a garden, there came a ring at the front door.

"my! who can be calling this time of night?" asked mother blake, in surprise.

hal and mab wondered too.