Therefore these vegetable offerings to the dear domestic god and goddess were affectionate , appropriate , and classical . Daisy had nothing but flowers in her little plot , and it bloomed all summer long with a succession of gay or fragrant posies . She was very fond of her garden , and delved away in it at all hours , watching over her roses , and pansies , sweet-peas , and mignonette , as faithfully and tenderly as she did over her dolls or her friends . Little nosegays were sent into town on all occasions , and certain vases about the house were her especial care . She had all sorts of pretty fancies about her flowers , and loved to tell the children the story of the pansy , and show them how the step-mother-leaf sat up in her green chair in purple and gold ; how the two own children in gay yellow had each its little seat , while the step children , in dull colors , both sat on one small stool , and the poor little father in his red nightcap , was kept out of sight in the middle of the flower ; that a monk 's dark face looked out of the monk 's - hood larkspur ; that the flowers of the canary-vine were so like dainty birds fluttering their yellow wings , that one almost expected to see them fly away , and the snapdragons that went off like little pistol-shots when you cracked them . Splendid dollies did she make out of scarlet and white poppies , with ruffled robes tied round the waist with grass blade sashes , and astonishing hats of coreopsis on their green heads . Pea-pod boats , with rose-leaf sails , received these flower-people , and floated them about a placid pool in the most charming style ; for finding that there were no elves , Daisy made her own , and loved the fanciful little friends who played their parts in her summer-life . Nan went in for herbs , and had a fine display of useful plants , which she tended with steadily increasing interest and care . Very busy was she in September cutting , drying , and tying up her sweet harvest , and writing down in a little book how the different herbs are to be used . She had tried several experiments , and made several mistakes ; so she wished to be particular lest she should give little Huz another fit by administering wormwood instead of catnip . Dick , Dolly , and Rob each grubbed away on his small farm , and made more stir about it than all the rest put together . Parsnips and carrots were the crops of the two D. 's ; and they longed for it to be late enough to pull up the precious vegetables . Dick did privately examine his carrots , and plant them again , feeling that Silas was right in saying it was too soon for them yet . Rob 's crop was four small squashes and one immense pumpkin . It really was a `` bouncer , '' as every one said ; and I assure you that two small persons could sit on it side by side . It seemed to have absorbed all the goodness of the little garden , and all the sunshine that shone down on it , and lay there a great round , golden ball , full of rich suggestions of pumpkin-pies for weeks to come . Robby was so proud of his mammoth vegetable that he took every one to see it , and , when frosts began to nip , covered it up each night with an old bedquilt , tucking it round as if the pumpkin was a well-beloved baby . The day it was gathered he would let no one touch it but himself , and nearly broke his back tugging it to the barn in his little wheelbarrow , with Dick and Dolly harnessed in front to give a heave up the path . His mother promised him that the Thanksgiving-pies should be made from it , and hinted vaguely that she had a plan in her head which would cover the prize pumpkin and its owner with glory . Poor Billy had planted cucumbers , but unfortunately hoed them up and left the pig-weed .
This mistake grieved him very much for tem minutes , then he forgot all about it , and sowed a handful of bright buttons which he had collected , evidently thinking in his feeble mind that they were money , and would come up and multiply , so that he might XXXXX many quarters , as Tommy did .
absorbed come cutting fancies made make planted put tended tugging