KERNEL COB
AND

LITTLE MISS
SWEETCLOVER

Written by

GEORGE MITCHEL

Illustrated by

TONY SARG

1918

P. F. Volland Company
Chicago, U.S.A

To Ursula, Dordie, Hutch and Bob
And children the wide world over,
I dedicate brave Kernel Cob
And dear Little Miss Sweetclover.

CHAPTER I

Jackie was a little boy and he had a little sister named Peggs, and they lived with their Aunt who was very old, maybe thirty-two.

And it was so very long since she had been a little girl, that she quite forgot that children need toys to play with and all that.

So poor little Jackie and Peggs had no soldiers or dolls but could only play at make-believe all day long.

They lived in a little white house nearly all covered with honeysuckle, and a little white fence with a little white gate in it ran all about and at the back of the little white house was a little garden with beautiful flowers growing in it.

And once, when they were making pies in the garden, Peggs began to cry and Jackie ran and put his arms about her, for he loved his little Peggs very dearly; and he said to her:

"What's the matter, Peggsie? Did a spider bite you?"

"No," says Peggs, "it didn't."

"Was it a naughty worm?"

"No," says Peggs, "it wasn't."

"Well, what was it?" says Jackie.

"It weren't anything that bit me, only I want a doll," and away she cried again.

"Huh!" says Jackie, "that's nothing. You don't want a doll any mor'n I want a soldier," and he sat down beside her and began to cry, too.

And after they had cried for a long time, maybe four hours or two, they stopped.

"I tell you what!" says Jackie.

"What?" says Peggs, drying her eyes on her pinafore.

"If no one will give us a soldier"...

"But I don't want a soldier," says Peggs. "I want a doll."

"Let's make one," says Jackie.

"That's a good way," says Peggs.

"You bet," says Jackie, and he slapped one of his legs the way sailors do in tales of the sea.

"What'll we make it of?" asked Peggs.

"Things," says Jackie. "Goodie!" says Peggs.

And they went in search of the things they would make the dolls of. And pretty soon, Peggs made the most wonderful doll of flowers that ever a child could see.

The head was of Sweetclover, the dress was a purple morning-glory turned upside-down so it looked like a bodice and a skirt, and it was tied to the head so that they wouldn't come apart. And perched on the top of the head was a little bonnet, only it wasn't really a bonnet, you know, but a little four o'clock.

And she called it Little Miss Sweetclover and it was the dearest little doll and as fresh as the morning dew.

In the meantime, Jackie had been busy, you may be sure; but he couldn't find anything to make a soldier of except sticks of wood, but he had no jack-knife, much as he had always wanted one.

"Whatever shall I do?" thought Jackie, as he looked about the garden, and just then he saw an ear of corn and he picked it up.

"Maybe this will do," and he picked all the kernels off except two for the eyes, one for the nose, two more for the ears and a row for the teeth.

And he ran to Peggs to have her sew some clothes for his soldier.

"What do you think of Little Miss Sweetclover?" says Peggs, holding it up for Jackie to see.

"I think she's very pretty," says Jackie, "only she needs legs." And while Peggs cut out and sewed a uniform for the soldier, Jackie went in search of legs for Sweetclover.

And these he made of two stems of a flower, bent at the ends to look like feet. And he ran back to Peggs with them.

"Here are the legs for Sweetclover with green shoes and stockings on." And he tied them to the rest of Sweetclover so that when she walked, they wouldn't come off.

By this time Peggs had finished the uniform for Jackie's soldier and a hat of newspaper with a great plume of cornsilk and a lot of medals which were cut from the gold leaf that comes on a card of buttons. And when they were all sewed on the jacket, he cut out a sword from the gold leaf and made hands and feet from the corn husk. And he colored the eyes with black ink and the lips with red, and, much before you could say "Crickety," the soldier was all finished.

"What'll we call him?" asked Jackie.

And they thought, and thought, and thought.

"I have it!" said Jackie.

"What?" asked Peggs.

"We'll call him Kernel Cob," says Jackie.

"Goodie!" says Peggs, clapping her hands with glee.

And you will see what wonderful dolls they were, and what wonderful things they did, and how they helped Jackie and Peggs to find ... but never mind.

You will see.

CHAPTER II

And one day, when Jackie and Peggs were playing in the garden with Kernel Cob and Sweetclover, the sun was very hot, so Peggs ran and got a parasol and put it over the dolls so they wouldn't wilt.

"I'd like Kernel Cob to be a great general," said Jackie as he put up the parasol, "and fight in all the wars of the world and lead his soldiers with a sword in his hand and get wounded and all that. Not very much wounded, though. Or I'd like to have him be an Admiral and sail all around the world. What do you think of that?"

"That's good," said Peggs.

"You bet," said Jackie. And he stood on his tippy toes to look bigger.

"And I'd like Sweetclover to be a mother," says Peggs, "and have hundreds and hundreds of children so she could give them all the dolls that ever they wanted."

"That would be noble," said Jackie.

"It's terrible for children to have no father or mother isn't it?" asked Peggs looking far off at nothing in the sky.

"Yes," said Jackie.

"I would rather have a mother and father than everything else in the world," says Peggs.

"Better'n little Sweetclover?" asked Jackie.

"Yes," answered Peggs, "for I could make another doll, but you can only have one mother and one father."

"Maybe you're right," said Jackie, "but I love Kernel Cob very much, just the same."

"Of course!" says Peggs.

Now, all of this was heard by Kernel Cob and Sweetclover, for all flowers and vegetables understand the language of people, but people do not understand the language of flowers and vegetables; and when Kernel Cob and Sweetclover talked, Jackie and Peggs couldn't hear them because flowers whisper very softly, and even if the children could hear them they couldn't understand them, you see, because it's a different kind of language and they never had heard it.

Sometimes, if you are a child, and sit in the garden when the wind is blowing, and listen, you may hear a kind of whispering among the flowers. And if you look very closely, you will see them sway toward each other and smile and nod their heads. Well, that is when they whisper in each other's ears just as if they were children.

And all vegetables are like that too,