"Well, mothers have to do many things they did not have to do when things
to eat and wear did not cost so much," spoke Mother Blake. "We have to
make one loaf of bread go almost as far as two loaves used to go, and as
for clothes--well, I am mending some of yours, Hal, that, last year, I
thought were hardly useful any more. But we must save all we can. So
that's why Daddy has to work harder and longer, and why he can't come home
Saturday afternoons as early as he used to."

It was a Saturday afternoon when Hal and Mab found so much fault about not
having any fun. Almost any other day they would have been in school, and
have been busy over their lessons. But just now they wanted to play and
they were not having a very jolly time, for they could not think of
anything to do. Or, at least, they thought they could not.

"What makes it Spring?" asked Hal, after a bit, as he watched his mother
putting a patch on his little trousers. Hal remembered how he tore a hole
in them one day sliding down a cellar door.

"Tell us what makes Spring, Mother," went on Mab. "That will be as much
fun as playing, I guess."

"The sun makes the Spring," said Mrs. Blake "Spring is one of the four
seasons. I wonder if you can tell me the others?"

"Which one starts?" asked Hal.

"Spring, of course," exclaimed Mab. "You have to start with something
growing, and things grow in the Spring."

"That is right," said Mrs. Blake. "Spring is the beginning of life in the