for everything that happens
you've but to look to find
there's bound to be a reason;
so keep that fact in mind.
son,” said fanner brown one morning at the breakfast table, “we've got the finest looking garden any where around. i don't remember ever having a garden with so little harm done by bugs and worms. all our neighbors are complaining that bugs and worms are the worst ever this year, and that their gardens are being eaten up in spite of all that they can do. i'm proud of the way in which you've taken care of ours.”
farmer brown's boy flushed with pleasure. he had worked hard in that garden ever since the seeds were planted.
he had fought the weeds and the bugs and worms. but so had some of his neighbors. yet in spite of this their gardens were nearly ruined. they had worked just as hard as he had, but the worms and the bugs had been too much for them. he couldn't understand why he had succeeded when they had failed. there must be a reason. there is a reason for everything.
after breakfast he put on his old straw hat and started down to the garden to look it over, still puzzling over the reason why his garden was so much better than others. just on the edge of the garden was an old board. he lifted one end of it and peeped under. old mr. toad looked up at him and blinked sleepily, but in the most friendly way. mr. toad's waistcoat was filled out until it looked too tight for comfort. fanner brown's boy smiled as he put the board down gently. he knew what made that waistcoat so tight; it was filled with bugs and worms. “there's a part of the reason,” muttered farmer brown's boy.
a little farther on he discovered little friend the song sparrow very busy among the berry-bushes. “there's another part of the reason,” chuckled farmer brown's boy. at the end of a long row he sat down to think it over. there was no doubt that he owed a great deal to old mr. toad and little friend and a lot of the feathered folk of the old orchard for his fine-looking garden, but he had had their help in other years when his garden had not looked half as well, and yet when there had not been nearly as many bugs and worms as this year. their help and his own hard work accounted for part of the reason for his fine-looking garden, but he couldn't help but feel that there must be something else he didn't know about.
he was thinking so hard that he sat perfectly still. presently a pair of bright eyes peeped out at him from under a berry-bush. then right out in front of him stepped a smart, trim little fellow dressed in brown, gray and white with black trimmings. it was bob white. he called softly and out ran mrs. bob and fifteen children! at a word from bob they scattered and went to work among the plants.
farmer brown's boy held his breath as he watched. they didn't pay the least attention to him because, you know, he sat perfectly still. some scratched the ground just like the hens at home, and then picked up things so small that he couldn't see what they were. but he knew. he knew that they were tiny seeds. and because all the seeds which he and farmer brown had planted were now great strong plants, he knew that these were seeds of weeds.
bob himself was very busy among the potato-vines. he was near enough for farmer brown's boy to see what he was doing. he was eating those striped beetles which farmer brown's boy had fought so long and which he had come to hate. “one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven,” counted farmer brown's boy, and then bob moved on to where he couldn't be seen. among the squash-vines he could see mrs. bob, and she was picking off bugs as fast as bob was taking the potato-beetles. what the others were doing he didn't know, but he could guess.
“there's the rest of the reason!” he suddenly exclaimed in triumph. he spoke aloud, and in a twinkling there wasn't a bob white to be seen.
