It had rained a light shower during dinner, but no one had noticed it because it had not lasted long and the sun came out bright again after the few clouds of the late afternoon. The rain had cooled the air.

"The evening is so cool and pleasant", Grandfather announced, "so I am going to the rose garden to do a little work. You may both come with me, if you want to."

Arthur thought he would run on the garden wall again. Ardath asked if she should help Mary with the dishes.

Grandfather said it was very considerate of Ardath to think of helping Mary, but that she had been indoors enough and should have some fresh air. The little girl was grateful that Grandfather thought she should go to the garden, too. She wanted to see the lightning bugs again.

They both ran up and down the garden wall a few times, but soon they became interested in what Grandfather was working. He had a small clippers and was snipping off the wilted roses which were about ready to drop their petals on the ground.

When Grandfather saw the children had stopped play to watch him, he explained, "We do this so the rose does not go to seed, It is the beauty of these roses we want to look at for our joy. We do not want to eat them so we do not let them form seeds like the flowers on the peas and bean stalks."

"Could you eat rose seeds?" Ardath wanted to know.

"Yes, you could eat rose seeds. They are a source of Vitamin ‘C'. But these are not the type of rose that makes the largest rose hips. The hips are the seed pods, you know, where the vitamin is hidden." Grandfather informed the interested little girl. "A wild rose has the largest rose hip, but it does not have so much beauty in the flower as this rose." Grandfather touched an especially beautiful white rose.

Arthur did not understand about the rose hips, but a record was made on his mind from what Grandfather said. Sometime he would remember it and ask questions so he could learn more about the rose hips and the value of their vitamin C.

"Could we help you clip off the dead roses?" Arthur asked Grandfather.

"You may help by breaking them off, but I have only one pair of clippers. When there is so much rain as we have had this month, the stems are brittle and they break easily." Grandfather told them. He showed them how to break off the dead roses and drop them on the ground.

Both children kept breaking off the dead rose heads until the early evening shadows began to fall across the rose garden from the big trees and the "lightning bugs" began to twinkle. Grandfather's clippers made metallic sounds in a steady rhythm.

When the clippers stopped, Ardath and Arthur looked at Grandfather. He was listening. "The little birds are being put to bed by their mothers. Do you hear the gentle lullaby they are twittering?" Grandfather listened again and the children listened.

"It seems to me," Grandfather said as he kept listening, "that I hear someone reminding me that it is bath time for a certain young man, named Arthur and a young lady, named Ardath."

"De we need to have our bath right now?" Arthur was disappointed. "Can't we stay and cut off more dead roses?"

"Would you rather stay in the garden another hour and miss your ‘good-night hour' than go to into the house now and prepare for out talk with one another?"

"I want to go into the house and prepare for our ‘good-night hour'." Ardath decided. "You promised to tell us about the dew." She reminded.

Arthur did not say anything, but he went along with Ardath and Grandfather into the big stone house.
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