Good evening and welcome to Dreamtime Stories with Jackie.
I'm so happy you're here to join me for another wonderful sleepy story.
We're heading into chapter 13 of Bob White and in chapter 12 we watched how the little Bob White family learned their lessons for safety.
So snuggle down in your blankets and get everything just the way you like it.
I like my covers right up to my chin.
And here we go.
Chapter 13.
Farmer Brown's Boy Becomes Thoughtful.
For everything that happens you've but to look to find there's bound to be a reason.
So keep that fact in mind.
Son,
Said Farmer Brown one morning at the breakfast table,
We've got the finest looking garden anywhere around.
I don't remember ever having a garden with so little harm done by bugs and worms.
All our neighbors are complaining that bugs and worms are the worst ever this year and that their gardens are being eaten up in spite of all they try and do to prevent it.
I'm really proud of the way in which you've taken care of ours.
Farmer Brown's boy flushed with pleasure.
He had worked very hard in that garden ever since the seeds were planted.
He had fought the weeds and the bugs and the worms but so had most of his neighbors.
Yet in spite of this their gardens were nearly ruined.
They had worked just as hard as he had but the worms and the bugs had been just too much for them.
He couldn't understand why he had succeeded when they had failed.
There must be a reason.
There is a reason for everything.
After breakfast he put on his old straw hat and started down to the garden to look it over.
Still puzzling in his mind over the reason why his garden was so much better than others.
Just on the edge of the garden was an old board.
He lifted one end of it up and peeped underneath.
Old Mr.
Toad looked up at him and blinked sleepily but in the most friendly way.
Mr.
Toad's waistcoat was filled out until it looked like it was too tight for comfort.
Farmer Brown's boy smiled down as he put the board gently back.
He knew what made that waistcoat so tight.
It was filled with bugs and worms.
Hmm there's a part of the reason muttered Farmer Brown's boy.
A little farther on he discovered little friend the song sparrow.
Very busy among the berry bushes.
There's another part of the reason chuckled Farmer Brown's boy.
At the end of a long row he sat down to think it over.
There was no doubt that he owed a great deal to old Mr.
Toad and little friend the sparrow and a lot of the feathered folk of the old orchard to his fine looking garden.
But he had had their help in other years too when his garden had not looked half as well.
And yet when there had not been nearly as many bugs and worms as this year their help and his own hard work accounted for part of the reason for his fine looking garden.
But he couldn't help but feel that there must be something else that he didn't know about.
Hmm he was thinking so hard that he sat perfectly still.
Presently a pair of bright eyes peeped out at him from under a berry bush.
Then right out in front of him stepped a smart trim little fellow dressed in brown gray and white with black trimmings.
It was Bob White.
He called softly and out ran Mrs.
Bob and 15 children.
At a word from Bob they scattered and went to work among the plants.
Farmer Brown's boy held his breath as he watched.
They didn't pay the least attention to him because you know he sat perfectly still.
Some scratched the ground just like the hens at home and then picked up things so small that he couldn't see what they were.
But he knew.
He knew they were tiny seeds and because all the seeds which he and Farmer Brown had planted were now great big strong plants he knew that these were the seeds of weeds.
Bob himself was very busy among the potato vines.
He was near enough for Farmer Brown's boy to see what he was doing.
He was eating those striped beetles which Farmer Brown's boy had fought for so long and which he had come to hate.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight,
Nine,
Ten,
Eleven counted Farmer Brown's boy and then Bob moved on to where he couldn't be seen.
Among the squash vines he could see Mrs.
Bob and she was picking off bugs just as fast as Bob was taking those potato beetles.
What the others were doing he didn't know but he could guess.
There's the rest of the reason.
He suddenly exclaimed in triumph.
He spoke aloud and in a twinkling there wasn't a Bob White to be seen.
Oh that's wonderful he figured it out.
How exciting that the Bob White family can help get all the little pests that harm gardens.
So snuggle down and you have a wonderful night's sleep and dream some lovely dreams.
This is Jackie sending you so many hugs.
Come back again soon for chapter 14 in the Bob White Adventure Series.
Good night now.
