Polly had a little garden all her own. When Daddy first gave it to her, she looked after it every day. She raked and hoed and sowed seeds and watered and weeded. It really was a dear little garden. But, as time went on, I am sorry to say, Polly did less and less in her garden. She let the weeds grow apace and nearly choke the poor flowers; till one day Daddy said:
"Unless you weed and water your garden to-day, Polly, I shall take it away from you altogether.""All right, Daddy, I"ll do it to-day," said Polly. And she really meant to, because, although she had neglected it so long, she did not at all like the idea of not having any garden of her own. But somehow she forgot all about it. So Mother gave her a reminder.
"Run along and weed your garden now, dear," she said;" you know you promised Daddy you would do it to-day." "Yes, Mummy," murmured Polly, looking up from thebook she was reading, "I"ll do it presently.""I should do it now, and finish the story afterwards," said Mother.
Polly got up with a sigh. She walked into the garden, but- she took the story-book with her.
"I must finish this story first," she said to herself, and she sat down to read. She was just finding her place when a fat, green caterpillar fell from the tree above, plop on to the open page.
"Oh!" said Polly, and she picked a leaf, let the caterpillar crawl on to it, and then flung it over the garden wall.
She sat down again and opened her book. A lady-bird flew on to the page and walked slowly across it. Polly told it to fly away home, and gave it a little push with her finger.
"Ah! this is where I was," murmured Polly, again settling to read, when a big fat bumble bee buzzed round her head- buzz, buzz, buzz-and bumped against her nose.
"Go away," cried the little girl, crossly, shaking her head.
She had lost her place again, and was just trying to find it when a large spider, with long, long legs and a little round body, walked on to the page.
"Oh!" cried Polly, and flung the book, spider and all, from her. " I can"t read here at all."Then she caught sight of her little garden all choked with weeds, the poor flowers all droopy for want of a drink.
"It"s really in a dreadful state," she said. "I"d better do it at once." So she set to work and weeded till there wasn"t a weed left; and she watered till the ground was nice and soft. As the water sank into the hard ground, the flowers slowly liftedtheir heads once more.
" That"s right, dear," said Mother;"how nice it looks! Daddy will be pleased. I was afraid you would read your book and forget all about it again."And then Polly told Mother about the caterpillar and the lady-bird, the bee and the spider, and Mother said:
"I think they came to tell you to get on with the weeding."And I really believe they did, for, when Polly sat reading in the garden after tea, under that very same tree, not a creature of any sort disturbed her.
From Tiny Tots.
Author.-The author was an unknown writer in Tiny Tots, an English magazine for children.
General Notes.-What was Polly"s chief fault? What helped her tocure it? What other animals do you find in gardens?