Mr. Rabbit said that a good many people bought their plants, but that he always liked to raise his own from seed, because then he knew just what they were and what to expect. He told them how to plant the different things and about the moon, and said there was an old adage in his family that if you remembered it you'd always plant at the right time. The adage, he said, was:
"Pease and beans in the light of the moon-- Both in the pot before it's June."
And of course you only had to change "light" to "dark" and use it for turnips and potatoes and such things, though really it was sometimes later than June, but June was near enough, and rhymed with "moon" better than July and August. He said he would give Mr. Crow all the seeds he wanted, and that when he was ready to put out tomatoes he would let him have plenty of plants too.
Then Mr. 'Coon said it would be nice to have a few flower seeds, and they all looked at Mr. 'Coon because they knew he had once been in love, and they thought by his wanting flowers that he might be going to get that way again.
But Mr. Rabbit said he was fond of flowers, too, especially the old-fashioned kind, and he picked out some for Mr. 'Coon; and then he went to weaving again, and the Hollow Tree People watched him awhile, and he pointed out pieces of different clothes he had had that he was weaving into his carpet, and they all thought how nice it was to use up one's old things that way.
Then by-and-by the Hollow Tree People went back home, and they began their garden right away. It was just the kind of a day to make garden and they all felt like it, so they spaded and hoed and raked, and didn't find it very easy because the place had never been used for a garden before, and there were some roots and stones; and pretty soon Mr. 'Possum said that Mr. Crow and Mr. 'Coon might go on with the digging and he would plant the seeds, as he had been used to such work when he lived with his uncle Silas as a boy.
[Illustration: ONE SAID IT WAS ONE WAY AND THE OTHER THE OTHER WAY]
So then he took the seeds, but he couldn't remember Mr. Rabbit's adages which told whether beets and carrots and such things as grow below the ground had to be planted in the dark of the moon or the light of the moon, and it was the same about beans and pease and the things that grow above the ground; and when he spoke to Mr. Crow and Mr. 'Coon about it, one said it was one way and the other the other way, and then Mr. 'Possum said he wasn't planting the things in the moon anyhow, and he thought Mr. Rabbit had made the adages to suit the day he was going to plant and that they would work either way.