foliage is handsome all summer long. Some shrubs look scrubby after
awhile."

"Where did you get all this knowledge, Philip?" asked Albert, half
enviously.

"I made it my business to know. I hunted up shrubs in a catalogue, then
I called on a florist, and we had a shrub talk together."

"Now, I call that getting down to real work," Jay remarked. Philip
looked happy and Peter nearly tilted his chair over in his pleasure for
he evidently felt the city was making good.

"Now, Jack, bring on the coldframe."

"I have my drawing right here," began Jack, spreading it out on the
table while the boys crowded about. "You look at the drawing as I
explain. Myron and Jay have promised to help me make it. It will be a
coldframe this year; next fall I shall change it into a hotbed."

"How?" broke in Albert.

"I shall dig out the soil from the coldframe. Then I shall put in two
feet of manure and cover it with four inches of soil. This spring about
all I can do is to mix into the soil some well-rotted manure. I guess I
shall put in about three inches in all. I guess I can explain,"
continued Jack, delighted at this opportunity to air his newly acquired
knowledge. "The Chief has talked this over with me. It all depends upon
what you wish to use the frame for. I want to use mine to get an early
start this spring, so I make the bed rich and depend on the sun's rays