Natalie: A Garden Scout Part 19

"That's so! I might take those big white hens with the yellow legs,"

replied Janet.

"Yes, they're nice-looking, too. Those dappled ones are not a bit picturesque; nor are those smaller hens with red-brown plumage. The white ones will look so nice walking around our lawn."

So Janet selected six of the largest white hens she could find in the entire flock of several hundred chickens. Mr. Ames remonstrated in vain that she had better take Rhode Island Reds, or some of the guinea hens instead. She _wanted_ the big white ones.

"And we'll take that lovely rooster with the wonderful tail," added Janet, selecting one with marvellous hues in his c.o.c.k-plumes when the sun changed its colors to variegated beauty.

"He ain't no good fer a rooster, Miss," said Mr. Ames.

Natalie whispered advice again. "Janet, I believe he wants to keep him for himself. Don't let him do it."

"Mr. Ames, I'll take the one with those pretty feathers, or I won't buy any!" declared Janet firmly.

"Oh, all right, Miss. I don't care what you choose as long as you want them. But I'm tellin' you-all, them hens is old and that rooster is sickly," explained Mr. Ames, in a tone that said plainly: "I wash my hands of all your future complaints."

"Now how about the young chicks you told us about? Can I buy some of them?" asked Janet, when hens and rooster were noted on a paper.

"Yeh; come with me and I'll show you the kind you'd best get to start with. They're about three to four weeks old and kin scratch fer themselves and eat whatever they find. You kin let them run wild, and they'll get stronger that way."

Then the chicks were selected and Mr. Ames found a hen that was wanting to set on a nest of eggs. So he picked up the hen and put her in a feed-bag. Both Natalie and Janet cried in fear lest she smother before they reached home.

"Nah, she's ust to such ways. I'll set her when we git over to Green Hill, and you gals kin pick out the eggs and slip 'em under her to-night when it is dark. Then she won't bother you."

All this was very interesting to the two girls who had never heard a word about raising chickens, or setting hens, before. So Mr. Ames drove them home in high spirits. The crate holding the pigs was left by the kitchen steps, and the hen placed in the coop on some china eggs, until Janet could select other eggs.

On his way past the house again, Mr. Ames called to Mrs. James: "Them churries oughter be picked soon. Ef you want me and my man to do it, we kin come this afternoon, likely."

Rachel overheard and said: "Mis' James, pickin' ox-hearts is fun fer gals. Dem trees is jus' bustin' wid fruit a-waitin' a lot of young gals'

hands to pick 'em. Ef I wuz you, Honey, I'd give Mr. Ames an answer in th' mawnin'. One night moh won't hurt the fruit, nohow."

The farmer sent an angry glance at Rachel, but she met it with effrontery. When Mrs. James said, "I think I will wait until to-morrow before deciding," Rachel grinned at the discomfited man.

He drove away without loss of time, and merely said: "I'll bring them chickens over to-morrer."

The moment he was out of hearing, Rachel said eagerly: "Why, Mis' James, them Girl Scouts down at camp'll give their haids to climb them trees and pick cherries on shares fer you. Charity begins to home, so let our gals get the benefit, says I!"

"Oh yes, Jimmy! Then Janet and I can help them, too. It will be heaps of fun, I think. We have a good ladder in the barn, and another shorter one in the cellar, so some of us can pick the outside boughs while the others climb up and do the inside branches," planned Natalie.

Mrs. James studied the blue sky seriously. Then said: "I suppose we ought to pick them at once, then, while the weather is good. Once a rain sets in, cherries will rot. The birds, too, are ruining the ripe fruit with their pickings, so we ought to begin work immediately after luncheon."

"I'll tell you, then!" exclaimed Natalie. "While you and Rachel get the luncheon out, Janet and I will hurry to camp and ask Miss Mason if her girls want to do the work."

"I'm sure they will be crazy to do it," added Janet.

So the two friends ran down to the woodland camp where a bevy of merry Girl Scouts were just finis.h.i.+ng their dinner. Natalie told what brought her there, and added: "We ought to be able to pick all the cherries before sundown, don't you think so, Miss Mason?"

"Why, yes, if so many of us work. But we might break down the branches if we all climb in the trees," said she.

"Some of us will use ladders, and some climb the trees. There are three, you know, so we can plan to be on different boughs to pick," explained Natalie.

The Scouts donned their overalls which they generally used in outdoor work about camp, and started back with Natalie. At the house they were told that the fruit was to be gathered on shares, and each girl could sell her cherries to Mrs. James, or keep them, as she chose. Then the pickers were given baskets, or pails, and sent to the trees, where Natalie and Janet joined them after luncheon.

The step-ladder found in the attic was brought down and placed under the tree with the low boughs. One girl mounted this and began to pick from its top step. The long ladder from the barn was placed against another tree so that the topmost branches could be reached by careful work, and a short ladder was put against the lower boughs.

Natalie eagerly climbed up in the branches of one of the trees and began to pick quickly. She had a two-quart tin pail that was hung over a short branch near her hands, and as she began to pick the cherries, she sang or called to her companions. Rachel smiled approvingly as she heard her "Honey-Chile" so happy, then she turned to go back to her kitchen and start a big supper for so many Girl Scouts that night.

After a time, Janet called to Natalie: "Say, aren't a lot of the cherries bad from the pecking the birds gave them?"

"Yes, and it's a shame, too! I pick what seems to be a luscious cherry, and when it is in my hand, it turns out to have a great rotted spot on the other side," added one of the Scouts.

"If the birds would only keep at the same cherry and finish it, instead of flying from one to another and taking a nip out of each," said Natalie.

"Well, you see, they bite the ripe spot out of the cherry, and then fly to another good ripe mouthful. It is easier that way than trying to turn their heads around the cherry to eat the opposite side," laughed Janet.

"Girls!" now shouted Natalie, making a quick dash at something about her head. "Do these horrid little yellow-jackets annoy you, too?"

"They are after the decayed cherries," called a Scout.

"They are not yellow-jackets, are they? I thought they were hornets,"

said another Scout.

"They're both-there is a hornet, now-buzzing about my ear!" cried Janet.

At that very moment, a sharp scream from Natalie caused every girl to turn her head and see what had happened. In another moment a crash of branches and a flash of a body falling down through the leaves made several of the Scouts cry out in fright.

Natalie had been picking the cherries from the topmost branches, as she liked to sit up high and pelt the stones from the fruit she ate, down at the girls' heads, to tease them. The hornets had a small nest in the top of the tree, but Natalie was not aware of that. As she called and laughed at her friends, the hornets began to grow excited, and when they found the annoyance failed to go away but came ever nearer their nest, they buzzed about and threatened in angry terms. Still Natalie paid no attention to what they said to her. She thought they wanted to feed on the rotten fruit, whereas they merely wished her to go and leave them in peace.

At last the disturbance was too much for one of the old hornets. He flew in circles about her head and scolded until his exasperation took form in the offensive. Natalie's neck was a very advantageous spot and she could not see him when he lit on her collar and quickly crept up to the soft smooth skin in the nape of the neck.

Without further warning he drove in his dagger-point and Natalie screamed with pain. Forgetting that she was up in a tree, and must cling fast to the boughs, she suddenly put both hands to her neck. The natural result was, she fell down so quickly that her friends could not get to her a.s.sistance in time to do a thing.

Smaller twigs and branches had given way with her weight and she would have fallen to the ground, had not a friendly bough caught her under the arms and suspended her momentarily. Then the smaller bough that grew from the friendly one snapped short off under the girl's weight, and the sharp up-thrusting section left on the tree ran right through the suspender-straps at the back of her overalls. There she hung, like a toy doll on a Christmas Tree,-her feet dangling and her head and hands helplessly held out to be taken down by some kind friend.

The terrifying scream brought Rachel running from the kitchen and Mrs.

James up from the cellar, where she had gone to hunt for more containers for the cherries. When Rachel saw what had happened she wrung her fat hands in agony.

"Oh, m' Honey! My li'l' chile-hang on t' dat limb fer all you'se wuth!"

yelled she. Then she rushed over the gra.s.s to the rescue,-but Natalie dangled just out of reach above her head.

Janet slid down the rough trunk of the cherry-tree the moment she heard her friend shriek. Her thin stockings hung in strips when she reached the ground, and her legs were skinned from knees to ankles, but she felt no pain, as she was so excited over the outcome of this accident.

"Quick! Someone get that step-ladder we had here!" cried she, jumping up and down in her fear that Natalie would let go and fall; yet she was too excited to run for the ladder herself.

Rachel instantly comprehended and jumped across the intervening s.p.a.ce between the two trees and caught a firm hold of the lower part of the step-ladder. She never stopped to see if anyone was on the top step. But one of the Scouts had been standing on it with her form hidden in the foliage of the tree. As Rachel whirled the ladder out from under her, the Scout was left in mid-air, instinctively clutching the branches to save herself.

The other Scouts had descended the trees by this time, and some ran over to help save Natalie, while others stopped under the tree where the new accident threatened to take place.

"Help! Help!" yelled the girl who was dangling from a bough.