Arthur roused first from the afternoon rest. There had been so many questions he had wanted to ask Father, but there had been no chance. The questions began to pop one by one into his waking mind. He wondered why everyone said Grandfather was very old when he didn't look old. He wondered where Adam put the horse and carriage and where the dogs were that he heard barking. Ardath was still asleep so he thought he would shut his eyes again and try to sleep. The questions were too urgent. He got out of bed.

Trying to be "quiet as a mouse" is supposed to be, so as not to disturb Ardath, Arthur went to the bathroom. First, he went to the toilet, then he washed his hands and face with cold water. Without making any noise he tiptoed back to his room and dressed himself.

Mother must have heard him as mothers have a way of doing even if one is as quiet as possible. She came to the door of the bedroom and beckoned to him. "Do you want to go to the garden, now?" she whispered.

Arthur hesitated a moment so Mother thought he might be going to ask her to come with him. She very much wanted him to find his way alone to the garden so she told him, "Your Father and Grandfather said they would be in the garden all afternoon. Why don't you go see if you can find them?"

This encouraged the boy and he went down the stairs remembering to be quiet and not to slam the front screen door. Arthur thought this was his good chance to get some of his questions answered.

Grandfather and Father were talking and did nt give the boy the attention he expected. Father took him by the hand, but kept walking with Grandfather. They were talking about a fountain that was to be built in the garden. Arthur knew Grandfather approved of him joining them because Grandfather patted Arthur's shoulder. That made Arthur feel he was a partner with the men.

Mother and Ardath soon joined them in the garden and the conversation turned to flowers. Grandfather said, "We had to replace more than a hundred rose bushes last week. There was very little snow, but the ground was frozen deeply so the roots froze."

This was something new to think about. In Phoenix where they lived, winter was the pleasant part of the year. Plants did not freeze in winter, but in the hot Spring and Summer they were often brown, not green, cool and moist as here on Grandfather's farm in Pennsylvania.

Ardath and Arthur thought the roses and border flowers were beautiful and they listened politely to the talk about them for a little while. But the garden walls became more and more inviting. When no one else was talking for a moment, Arthur asked, "Grandfather, may we walk on the garden walls?"

Grandfather laughed, ‘Are you sure you want to walk on the garden walls or do you want to run? Being "very, very wise' Grandfather knew what children, especially little boys were most likely to want to do. This was assurance to the children and they were both soon running along the garden walls. Every five running steps the children took, there was a rise on the garden wall. When running down the slope of the garden, they jumped down the step. When they ran up the slope of the garden, they stepped carefully up the rise.

As the children kept running on the garden wall, Mother kept her eye on them. She listened to Grandfather tell about the flowers at the same time.

"Watch me this time!" Arthur called to his Mother as he made a broad jump over the lowest part of the wall. He was like every other little boy of four, soon to be five. It was the first time he had run along a garden wall and jumped down a stone rise, one after another. Ardath enjoyed the wall, too, but she didn't run so fast nor jump as hard as Arthur did even if she was fifteen months older than her brother.

The tinkling of a bell broke the late afternoon calm. Arthur heard it, first. "Is that a cow bell?" he asked excited. Father had told him that cows sometimes wear bells so they can be easily found if they wander in the woods.

"So, you know abut cow bells?" Grandfather was pleased that Arthur had an idea about the bell. It sounds something like a cow bell, but that bell means it is time to prepare for dinner.

Grandfather explained as he led the way across the lawn toward the house. "Whenever you hear that bell, you drop your work wherever you are and go to the house."

"Are we going to be working all the time we are here on the farm?" Arthur asked. The idea of the bell was fun, but the mention of work was something of a puzzle to Arthur.

"We all work at every day living, you know." Grandfather laughed, "Whether we know it or not, it takes constant activity to live beautifully."

Arthur was more concerned with eating at the moment than work so he did not ask any more questions, but followed Grandfather to the house.
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