HOW THE CORN GREW

Little Me Too walked to the right, then to the left, along the sidewalk in front of the house.

As he walked he sang with all his might about the ocean, and the summer time, and any other pleasant thing that came into his head.

He made it up as he went along, and grew quite out of breath at last, and had to stop.

Just as he had got his breath and was meaning to begin all over again, he saw something very small and yellow on the edge of the walk.

Then he began to sing the song of whatever it might be that was so small and yellow.

This is what he sang:—
“I wonder what this is.
I guess it is a kernel¹ of corn.
I wonder how it came here
All alone by itself.
decoration48decorationI guess I don’t know.
I wonder if it can be planted
In the grass in our yard.
Yes!”

When he said “Yes!” he stooped down and dug a hole in the ground in the dooryard with his fingers.

Then he put the kernel of corn in the hole and covered it over with dirt.

Afterwards he stood up and sang at the top of his voice, “Now I guess it will grow!”

Of course it grew!

After a few days it poked² itself up through the earth to make Little Me Too remember. For Little Me Too had forgotten all about it.

When he saw it poking³ its head up through the grass, he didn’t remember even then that it was the kernel of corn.

It had changed.

When he put it into the ground and covered it with dirt, it was yellow and hard.

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Now it was green and soft. It looked somewhat like the rest of the grass,—but not just like it, or Little Me Too wouldn’t have noticed it.
Boy talking to man mowing⁴ grass

When he saw it he said, “There’s a grass that wants to be different. Perhaps it’s the grandfather grass.”

He let it alone, and he got the man with the lawn mower⁵ to let it alone. That gave it a good chance to grow.

It grew just as fast as it could, and as soon as itdecoration50decoration was big enough it showed Little Me Too that it was no grandfather grass, but a cornstalk.

The man with the lawn mower said so.

Then it was that Little Me Too remembered. When he remembered, he said, “Yes, it grew.”

When it had grown to be taller than Little Me Too, people walking along the sidewalk would look at it, and say, “What a fine garden!”

The mother said, “I am glad it is something that can’t find its way into the nursery.”

Little Me Too it was who first saw the ear of corn growing on the stalk⁶.

He showed it to some people, and there were others who saw it without having it shown to them.

Each of them asked for a bite from it when it should be ripe.

Little Me Too said “yes,” to them all.

When he had said “yes” to thirty-one people, his mother said, “Don’t say ‘yes’ to any more people; you won’t have corn enough for them all.”

Little Me Too promised not to say “yes” again,decoration51decoration but sometimes he forgot, and by the time the corn was ripe he had said “yes” to fifty people.

But he had plenty of corn, for it was an ear of pop corn.

After it was popped over the nursery fire it filled a big, big bowl.

—Julia Dalrymple.

1 kernel   

n.(果实的)核，仁；(问题)的中心，核心

参考例句：

• The kernel of his problem is lack of money.他的问题的核心是缺钱。
• The nutshell includes the kernel.果壳裹住果仁。

2 poked   

v.伸出( poke的过去式和过去分词 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交

参考例句：

• She poked him in the ribs with her elbow. 她用胳膊肘顶他的肋部。
• His elbow poked out through his torn shirt sleeve. 他的胳膊从衬衫的破袖子中露了出来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 poking   

n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢

参考例句：

• He was poking at the rubbish with his stick. 他正用手杖拨动垃圾。
• He spent his weekends poking around dusty old bookshops. 他周末都泡在布满尘埃的旧书店里。

4 mowing   

n.割草，一次收割量，牧草地v.刈，割( mow的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The lawn needs mowing. 这草坪的草该割了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• "Do you use it for mowing?" “你是用它割草么？” 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

5 mower   

n.割草机

参考例句：

• We need a lawn mower to cut the grass.我们需要一台草坪修剪机来割草。
• Your big lawn mower is just the job for the high grass.割高草时正需要你的大割草机。

6 stalk   

n.茎，追踪，高视阔步；v.悄悄靠近，蔓延，高视阔步

参考例句：

• It's no better than a hollow stalk.那比根空麦秆子好不了多少。
• It was not a stalk，it was an ambush.这不是暗暗跟踪而是伏袭。