Green Fever by Wanda E. Brunstetter

Author:Wanda E. Brunstetter [BRUNSTETTER, WANDA E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-1-62836-269-5
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2013-09-05T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

A Green Lesson

For the next two weeks, Mattie kept an eye out for her bulbs to sprout. A week ago, on their way home from school, she and Mark had gone down to the creek where a bunch of ferns grew every year. Mattie had taken Mom’s small hand trowel with her that morning and kept it in their bicycle basket to use later that afternoon. Mark had dug the ferns out while Mattie took each bunch to the bicycle basket, which she’d lined with newspapers. Mark had said the trowel made it easy, and in no time at all, they had the basket filled. Mattie had hardly been able to wait that day to head home and get the ferns planted. She knew that once they grew they would complement her garden, and she thought Mark’s frog would like the ferns, too.

At the time Mattie had planted the fiddlehead ferns, they were still curled up. The ferns were named that because they looked like the curled scroll on the end of a string instrument, such as a violin.

Now, as Mattie helped Mom pull some weeds on a Saturday afternoon, she spotted some green growth in her little garden.

“Oh, look, Mom!” she shouted, pointing to the spot. “My tulip bulbs are finally coming up.”

Mom smiled and nodded. “I knew they would, Mattie. You just needed to be patient.”

“I can’t wait till the flowers bloom and I can pick ’em,” Mattie said. “Tulips smell so good, and Mom, I bet they’ll make the kitchen smell nice when I cut you a bouquet for the table.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” Mom agreed.

Mattie also noticed that the ferns she and Mark planted had unrolled and were starting to grow upward. Soon they would be feathered out and overlapping each other, creating a tropical-looking shaded area around Mark’s frog house. The ferns would also help to keep the water in the little frog’s pond cool from the afternoon sun during the hot summer months.

Mattie looked across the yard and spotted a robin with a worm in its mouth. She smiled. Just like she’d hoped, a pair of robins had made a nest in the bush outside their living-room window. It had been fun to show Ada and Perry the robin’s blue eggs. Any day now, they should be hearing the peep, peep of baby robins after they’d hatched.

Mom rose to her feet. “I need to see how the clothes on the line are doing. If you don’t want to continue pulling weeds, you’re free to do something else,” she told Mattie.

“Danki, Mom,” Mattie replied. “Think I’ll stay right here by my garden for now.”

“Okay.” Mom smiled and hurried away.

Mattie pulled a few more weeds until Mark came along and squatted on the grass beside her. “I hope you’re not gonna start decorating everything with flowers,” he said, dropping some colorful rocks into Mattie’s little garden.

“You’d better not put those too close to where my flowers are coming up,” Mattie warned.

“Oh, don’t worry….These few little pebbles won’t hurt your flowers.

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