A Halt for Provender by Sarah Noble Ives
Jimmy, Alice, and their sibling each plant a garden in spring, choosing crops that suit their character: Jimmy sows radishes because they grow quickly, Alice plants flower seeds for beauty, and the narrator chooses cabbages for their size. Jimmy's radishes thrive, growing round and red below ground with broad green tops; one day he pulls and eats them all with salt, then abandons gardening altogether. Alice's sweet peas grow fair, but Tim the gardener observes wryly, in his Irish brogue, that she has murdered every one of her fine seeds and left only the weeds, implying she has weeded out her own flowers by mistake. The narrator's cabbage patch fares worst: a Morning-Glory Vine creeps in overnight like a thief, twining around every cabbage plant and hanging them by their roots to dry like laundry on a line, ruining the whole plot. Reflecting on these failures, the narrator concludes that gardening has lost its appeal for the year, since the crops turned out poor, and declares that flying kites is now the better pastime.
By Sarah Noble Ives · Genre: Children's Literature, Poetry, Narrative Poetry · 303 words
First lines
We made our little garden-plots before the spring was passed, / And Jimmy, he raised radishes, because they grow so fast; / And Alice planted flower-seeds, to beautify the ground, / But I chose cabbages-they grow so grand and great and round.
And Jimmy's garden flourished-he had a splendid crop, / All round and red below the ground, and broad and green on top. / One day he pulled and ate them all-with salt they're very good- / Then Jimmy gave up gardening-but that is understood.
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Genres
- Children's Literature — Written for young readers with age-appropriate themes, accessible language, and child protagonists engaging in relatable activities and learning experiences
- Poetry — Composed entirely in verse form with structured rhyme scheme, rhythm, and poetic line breaks throughout the narrative
- Narrative Poetry — Tells a complete story with multiple characters, sequential plot progression, and narrative resolution through the poetic medium
- Humorous Fiction — Contains comedic situations, amusing failures, and witty observations about the characters' various gardening misadventures and unexpected outcomes
Tags
children's poetry · narrative poem · rhyming verse · didactic · gardening · siblings · failure · disappointment · spring · rural setting · plants · flowers
What this Textopian page supports
A Halt for Provender is listed on Textopian as a short story by Sarah Noble Ives, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Short story
- Author: Sarah Noble Ives
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Children's Literature, Poetry, Narrative Poetry, Humorous Fiction, Whimsical Fiction
- Length: 303 words
- Structure: 1 section, 5 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
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- Work identity for A Halt for Provender by Sarah Noble Ives
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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