Spring Sprouts

by Judy Delton

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  Originally published by Yearling, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., in 1989.

  Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks and A Stepping Stone Book and the colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Delton, Judy.

  Spring sprouts / by Judy Delton; illustrated by Alan Tiegreen.

  p. cm. — (Pee Wee Scouts)

  Summary: To earn their new badge, the Pee Wee Scouts learn about nutrition, plant vegetables, and visit a dairy farm.

  eISBN: 978-0-307-77883-3

  [1. Scouting (Youth activity)—Fiction. 2. Nutrition—Fiction.

  3. Gardening—Fiction. 4. Dairy farms—Fiction.] I. Tiegreen, Alan, ill. II. Title.

  PZ7.D388Sp 2009 [Fic]—dc22 2008010899

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

  v3.1

  For Goose’s Friend, and mine,

  Heron Gardner

  —J.D.

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  1 Seeds

  2 The Dandelion Deed

  3 Talking to Radishes

  4 Cows and Sows

  5 The Yolk on Roger

  6 No Badge for Molly

  7 It’s a Monster!

  About the Author

  About the Illustrator

  Seeds

  “What is cowhide used for the most?” Roger White asked Molly Duff.

  Molly sighed. Roger had gotten Jake’s Joke Book for his birthday. All he did was ask the Pee Wee Scouts riddles.

  “Shoes,” said Molly. “Cowhide is used for shoes.”

  Roger shook his head. “You don’t know, do you?” he shouted. “Guess again!”

  “Belts,” said Lisa Ronning. “My uncle has a cowhide belt.”

  “Nope,” said Roger.

  “Tepees,” said Sonny Betz. “Tepees are made of cowhide.”

  “No they aren’t,” said Roger. “They’re made of canvas. Or plastic or something.”

  “Not Indian tepees,” said Sonny.

  “Well, that’s not the answer,” said Roger.

  Roger was jumping up and down. “Do you know, Mrs. Peters?” he asked.

  “The main use for cowhide,” said Mrs. Peters slowly, “is to hold a cow together.”

  Roger didn’t laugh. He began to pout. He didn’t like it when someone knew the punch line.

  “I’m sorry,” said Mrs. Peters, with a smile. “But I heard that joke on the radio this morning.”

  The Pee Wee Scouts were in Mrs. Peters’s backyard. It was a hot spring day. The sun poured down on Molly’s head. It made her hair hot.

  “We can get sunburned out here,” said her friend Mary Beth Kelly.

  “I thought it would be fun to have our meeting outside today,” said Mrs. Peters. She was the Pee Wee Scout troop leader. “Winter was so long and cold. Spring feels good. The sun is good for Nick.”

  Nick was Mrs. Peters’s brand-new baby. He was only four months old. He sat in his stroller. The Scouts were giving him rides around the yard.

  “I mentioned the sun,” said Mrs. Peters, “because we are going to talk about vitamins today. And the sun has vitamin D in it.”

  Some of the Scouts groaned.

  “Yuck,” said Tracy Barnes. “I don’t like vitamins. Vegetables have them. Like spinach.”

  “Vitamins are in lots of things,” said Mrs. Peters. “Lots of good things. Even ice cream.”

  Molly rubbed her stomach. Ice cream would taste good right now, she thought. Cold and creamy. Yum.

  “I’d like to sit in a barrel of ice cream right now,” said Kevin Moe. “Right up to my neck.”

  The Pee Wees laughed. It was a funny thing to picture. Kevin in a tub of ice cream.

  Mrs. Peters walked over to the picnic table. She was carrying a big basket. She dumped it out on the table.

  Ker-plunk.

  Lots of little packages fell out.

  Pop, pop, pop.

  Brightly colored little packages.

  The Scouts looked at the packages.

  Red and green and blue.

  Yellow and pink and lilac.

  Everyone sat down on the benches around the table. Mrs. Peters propped Nick up so he could see.

  “What are they?” asked Tracy. She shook one of the little packages. It sounded noisy. Like little beads were inside.

  Rattle, rattle, rattle.

  “I know what they are,” said Rachel Meyers. “Seeds!”

  “You’re right,” said Mrs. Peters. “They are seeds to plant in gardens.”

  She opened one of the little packages. Little tiny dots were inside.

  “From these little seeds,” said their leader, “come big fat radishes!”

  “How can they?” asked Tim. He looked like he didn’t believe her.

  “That’s nothing,” said Rachel. “A great big tree grows from just a little seed.”

  The Pee Wees looked at the tree overhead. It was huge. Little green leaves were coming out. Light-green leaves.

  “That didn’t come from a little seed,” scoffed Tim.

  “Did too,” said Rachel. “Didn’t it, Mrs. Peters?”

  “It came from an acorn,” said Mrs. Peters. “Inside every acorn is a seed that can become an oak tree.”

  Rachel made a face at Tim.

  “But these seeds,” said Mrs. Peters, shaking a package, “are for radishes and carrots. I thought it would be fun for all of you to plant your very own garden while we study vitamins. Spring is the time to plant gardens.”

  “I love to dig in the dirt,” said Sonny.

  “Me too,” said Kenny Baker.

  “My dad plants a garden every spring,” said Rachel. “My mom freezes the vegetables.”

  “Then maybe you already know how to do it,” said Mrs. Peters. “Rachel can help us.”

  Mrs. Peters passed a little packet of seeds to each Scout.

  “First you find a nice sunny spot and dig up the dirt,” Mrs. Peters explained. “Then you rake it smooth.”

  She walked over to a little place in the yard that was already dug and raked. “Mr. Peters got this ready last night,” she said.

  She bent down and put a ruler on the ground. She made a little ditch alongside it with a knife. “This is so the row will be nice and straight,” she said.

  Then she sprinkled the seeds along the ruler, into the little ditch.

  “Don’t plant them too deep,” she said. “And not too close together. Every day you must water your garden. Water and sun will make it grow.”

  Molly couldn’t wait to get home and plant her seeds. She wanted to have the very first radish. And the biggest one of all.

  “This hot sun will bring them up fast,” said Mrs. Peters. She washed her hands off under the outdoor faucet.

  Then everyone sat down at the table again.

  “Besides the garden,” she said, “we will keep vitamin scrapbooks.”

  She held up a big picture of a carrot. �
�This has lots of vitamin A.”

  Then she held up a picture of a lemon. “This has lots of vitamin C. You can cut pictures out of old magazines. After you make your scrapbooks and plant your gardens, we will talk about nutrition. Then you will earn your EAT RIGHT badges.

  The Pee Wees cheered, “Yeah!”

  It was fun to plant a garden. And make scrapbooks. And it was even more fun to get a new badge!

  “We’ve got a seed catalog at home,” said Lisa. “I can find lots of vegetables in that.”

  Mrs. Peters talked some more about vitamins and nutrition. About what to eat for breakfast, for instance.

  Roger raised his hand. “Can I tell a joke?” he said.

  “Yes,” said Mrs. Peters.

  “What are two things you can’t eat for breakfast?” he said.

  The Scouts thought about the question.

  “Steak,” said Molly.

  “An ice-cream soda,” said Patty.

  Roger shook his head. “Lunch and dinner!” he shouted.

  “Boo!” said all the Scouts together.

  Roger looked embarrassed.

  Then they all joined hands and sang the Pee Wee Scout song. And they said the Pee Wee Scout pledge.

  Molly loved the Scout meetings.

  But she wanted to hurry home.

  To plant her garden.

  Molly wanted to be the first one to get her little packet of seeds in the ground.

  The Dandelion Deed

  After supper Molly’s dad showed her where she could plant a garden.

  “The sun will be there every morning,” said Mr. Duff.

  Molly raked the garden. Then she made straight lines with a ruler just as Mrs. Peters had. She put in a little fertilizer that her dad had given her.

  Mrs. Peters hadn’t talked about fertilizer. Maybe it was a secret trick. To make the seeds grow. To get the badge faster.

  Molly hoped it wasn’t cheating.

  Molly dropped the seeds along the ruler. Nice and straight. Not too deep. Not too close together.

  Then she covered the seeds with a little dirt and patted them down.

  Pat, pat, pat.

  “Grow fast,” she said to the seeds. She watered them with the hose.

  Now I have to wait, she thought. Hurry up and wait. She stared at the smooth dirt for a long time. Then she went inside.

  Every morning before school Molly ran out to look at her garden. Every morning it looked the same.

  Flat and black.

  Ants crawled over it.

  Angleworms crawled through it.

  But nothing else happened.

  After school one day Molly and Mary Beth and Lisa looked for pictures for their scrapbooks. They looked through magazines for pictures of fruits and vegetables.

  The girls were on Mary Beth’s front porch. It was another warm spring day.

  “Here’s spaghetti,” said Lisa.

  “Spaghetti isn’t a fruit or a vegetable,” said Molly. “It doesn’t even grow in a garden.”

  “So, I can still use it,” said Lisa. She started to cut it out. It looked so good.

  “Yum,” said Lisa. “I want spaghetti in my book.”

  “You can’t,” said Molly. “What would you put under it, vitamin S?”

  The girls laughed.

  Down the street they saw Roger coming toward them. He was riding on his bike.

  “Hey,” he said when he got close. He dragged his feet and came to a stop. “What’s the difference between a new penny and an old dime?” he asked.

  “You told us last week,” said Mary Beth. “Nine cents.”

  “Oh, yeah. I forgot,” said Roger. “I’ll go tell Patty. She’ll laugh at anything I say.”

  He rode on down the street.

  On Tuesday Mrs. Peters asked, “Is anyone’s garden up yet?”

  Rachel waved her hand. “Mine is, Mrs. Peters! My radishes have little green leaves!”

  “How could yours come up so fast?” asked Molly.

  “My dad started seeds in the house a month ago,” Rachel admitted. “Then we put them outside.”

  “That’s cheating,” whispered Tracy. “She got a head start.”

  “They aren’t even her own radishes,” whispered Lisa.

  “Keep your eyes on your gardens,” said Mrs. Peters. “Water them every day. This hot weather will bring your seeds up fast.”

  Then the Pee Wee Scouts shared their scrapbooks. They held up the pictures of the brightly colored vegetables.

  “I can’t find any beans,” said Patty.

  “I can’t find anything with vitamin C,” said Tim.

  “C is easy,” said Kenny. “Oranges have vitamin C. There are lots of pictures of oranges.”

  Molly tried to remember that. If orange began with a c, it would be easier.

  After the scrapbooks were put away, the Pee Wee Scouts told about the good deeds they had done during the past week.

  “I mowed the yard with my dad,” said Roger. “We filled about a zillion garbage bags with grass.”

  “I painted the fence in our yard,” said Patty.

  “Me too,” said Kenny, Patty’s twin brother. “We painted together.”

  It would be fun to be a twin, thought Molly. Molly was an only child.

  Tim was waving his hand.

  “Yes, Tim,” said Mrs. Peters.

  “I picked dandelion leaves for supper,” he said.

  The Scouts snickered. They made gagging noises.

  “Yuck!” said Rachel.

  “Gross,” said Kevin.

  Mrs. Peters held up her hand. “Dandelion greens make a good salad,” she said. “And they can be cooked too. They are loaded with vitamins. Tim did a good deed. And he found a new vegetable for his scrapbook.”

  “I’m going to pick dandelions tonight,” said Rachel.

  “So am I, we’ve got lots,” said Tracy. “I’ll bring some next week.”

  “It’s Tim’s good deed,” said Mrs. Peters. “I think we should let Tim have the dandelion deed.”

  Then Mrs. Peters added, “Next week I have a surprise for you. Be here right on time. Wear jeans. That’s all I’m going to tell you.”

  “Are we going to the zoo?” asked Kevin.

  “Is it another Pee Wee weenie roast?” shouted Roger.

  Mrs. Peters held up her hand. She smiled. “It’s a surprise,” she said.

  They sang their Pee Wee Scout song.

  They said their Pee Wee Scout pledge.

  But all they could think about was the surprise. Molly hoped the week would go fast. She was so curious!

  “Knock, knock,” said Roger as the Scouts left.

  “Knock, knock!” he said more loudly.

  “Who’s there?” said Patty.

  “Ether,” said Roger.

  “Ether who?” said Patty.

  “Ether Bunny!” Roger roared. “It’s an Easter joke, get it? Ether bunny?”

  “Easter is over,” said Rachel.

  “So?” said Roger. “It’s still funny.”

  But the Scouts had other things on their minds. Things like seeds and scrap-books and surprises.

  Mostly surprises!

  Talking to Radishes

  After school, Wednesday, Molly ran home to check her garden. Nothing yet. She stamped her foot. When would those radishes come up?

  On Thursday Kevin ran all the way to school. Some Pee Wee Scouts were outside talking together.

  “My garden’s up!” he shouted, out of breath. “My carrots are growing.”

  “Great,” said Mary Beth.

  “You’re the first one,” said Patty. “Except Rachel.”

  Molly felt angry. If she couldn’t be first, she at least wanted to be second.

  Lisa and Tracy looked mad too. They didn’t look happy for Kevin.

  At noon the Scouts walked by Kevin’s house on their way home to lunch. He took them into his backyard.

  “I don’t see anything,” said Tim.

  “Right here,
” said Kevin, getting down on the ground and pointing.

  Molly got down on her knees. She squinted. She got very close to the ground. She could see something very little. Something barely there. Barely green.

  “It’s them!” boasted Kevin. “It’s my carrots!”

  “You can’t see them when you stand up,” said Rachel.

  Kevin didn’t care. He knew they were there.

  On Sunday it was very hot. In the evening Molly watered her radishes.

  Her grandma said plants like it when you talk to them. Molly tried it. She told the radishes to hurry up and grow.

  “Come on, little radishes,” Molly said. “You have lots of water and lots of sun. I need you to get my badge. Please grow big and fat.” Molly got down on the ground. “Please, please, please!” she said.

  The garden didn’t answer.

  But Molly’s next-door neighbor did! Mrs. Berry was shaking a dust mop. She called to Molly, “Did you say something?”

  Molly shook her head. “I was talking to my garden,” she said.

  “Come and talk to mine too,” said Mrs. Berry. “Only my rhubarb is up so far.”

  Molly ducked into the house. Mrs. Berry was laughing at her. Molly felt silly.

  At last, on Tuesday morning before school, when Molly looked at her garden something was there! Something green!

  “My radishes!” she screamed to her mother. “My radishes are up!”

  “Good for you!” said Mrs. Duff.

  They were barely up, but they were there. Tiny thin green leaves. It was good that I talked to them, Molly thought. And watered them. Just in time too. They grew on Pee Wee Scout day.

  Molly ran all the way to school. She bounced in her seat all day waiting for three o’clock.

  She didn’t want to read.

  She didn’t want to subtract.

  She didn’t want to draw pictures.

  She wanted to tell Mrs. Peters that her garden was growing!

  At recess the other Scouts weren’t interested in gardens. “I wonder what our surprise is,” said Lisa.

  Molly had almost forgotten about the surprise.

  “I’ll bet it’s a picnic,” said Kenny. Kenny liked picnics.

  “I know what it is,” boasted Sonny. “Because my mom is the assistant Scout leader.”