While Ardath was helping Mary, Grandfather and Arthur went to the implement shed built on the side of the barn toward the vegetable garden. Adam was there with big brown gloves on his hands and had an oil can with a long funnel on it. He was lifting parts of the tractor so he could oil places where the air did not reach, to keep them from rusting. Grandfather examined the shovel harrow,a cultivator and disk harrow. He told Adam which ones needed special attention.

There was a big red wheel barrow in a corner and Grandfather backed it out of the shed and asked Arthur if he thought he could wheel it. Arthur said "Sure", and took hold of the handles. The wheelbarrow tilted to one side. This surprised Arthur because it had looked easy to push the barrow the way Grandfather did it.

Grandfather knew it was too much to expect Arthur to push the big wheel barrow, but he showed him again how easy it was if you kept both sides balanced. It was good for Arthur to try and keep trying to balance the barrow. Even if he did not succeed, it was fine exercise for Arthur's arm muscles and for his legs, too, because he had to use them to brace himself so the tilting barrow did not upset him. It made Arthur want to learn to balance the wheelbarrow because it was not easy to do.

"You can try that again, tomorrow", Grandfather suggested when he thought Arthur had tried long enough to balance the wheelbarrow. There were garden tools in the implement shed, too and Grandfather showed Arthur a hoe.

"This is a hoe", he explained as he picked up a long handled tool with an iron fixture on the enc of it, bent away from the handle. "I was using this to hoe weeds from the rose garden when you arrived, yesterday.

Arthur remembered that Grandfather had been working in the garden when he had arrived at Beverly Farm with his parents and Ardath. He also remembered about the weed Grandfather pulled from his vegetable garden earlier in the day.

"Why don't you pull the weeds from the rose garden?" Arthur asked.

"When the weeds get big enough to get a hold on the tops, you can pull them out as we did this forenoon. But when the weeds are small and close to the ground, you cut them out with the hoe. That keeps them from growing big and taking the minerals out of the soil which should go into healthful food and beautiful flowers." Grandfather led the way to the vegetable garden as he talked and showed Arthur how to use the hoe by placing his left hand below his right hand on the hoe handle, putting the iron fixture on the end of it, along the ground.

"Now that you know how to use the hoe", Grandfather said, "You can help me with the weeds anytime you want to, after your other chores are finished. If you see a big weed you can get a hold on, you can pull it up by the roots. If the weeds are small, you can hoe them out. This is what you must learn to do if you want to have a successful garden of good vegetables to eat or beautiful flowers to enjoy.

Grandfather gave the hoe to Arthur. "You keep this hoe and I will get another one from the implement shed.

Arthur took the hoe and started to scratch the surface of the ground where there were tiny weeds. It was easy to do, much easier that wheeling the barrow. When Grandfather came back with his hoe he took the next row and started hoeing, too.

Grandfather and Arthur hoed until they heard the tinkling of the dinner bell. They put their hoes side by side in the implement shed and walk toward the house.

"I like to help you in the garden", Arthur told Grandfather.

"You do very well, as a helper", Grandfather told Arthur. The boy felt like a man walking alongside of Grandfather.

Ardath was waiting at the front door for Grandfather and Arthur.

"I rang the dinner bell, real loud, so you would hear it." she said proudly.

"We heard it and came right away." Arthur answered and Grandfather took her hand in both of his and bent to plant a kiss on it. The made Ardath laugh and she said, "Thank you, Grandfather."

By the time everyone was ready to eat and in the dining room, the food was on the table. There was a beautiful puffy yellow casserole that looked just like the picture in the cookbook.

"Did you help Miss Mary make that charming dish?" Grandfather guessed.

"I helped a lot and I put love in my finger tips like Mother says she does when she prepares food for her family." Ardath added her own charming thought to the delightful dinner.

After they had said their prayer, together, Grandfather tasted the casserole and said it was as good as anything he had ever tasted and even better than it looked. Everyone had big glasses of milk and the yellow homemade butter made the baked potatoes seem the best Arthur had ever eaten. Maybe that was because Grandfather had grown them in his vegetable garden. Ardath knew it was the love she had sent through her finger tips that made everything taste so good to everyone. Preparing food for others to eat to help them be healthy was very important work to the little girl.

Arthur enjoyed his dinner so much because he had learned that he could be helpful to Grandfather with his work on the farm.
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