The rest of the morning was an even bigger party for Jan. Sjaak praised him for making the soil so beautifully loose and distributing the new garden soil over it wonderfully.

"Do you know what's handy now Jan? Stamping a path, right through it, so that later you can reach everything. I can reach all the way to the other side from here, well... it's also difficult, but I'm much taller than you. And I think you'll enjoy harvesting your lettuce yourself after a while, don't you?"

Jan nodded. Sjaak put his hand on his shoulder and took him to the narrower side of the patch: "Just start here, and walk straight across, you'll get a fine path."

Patrick went to the other side of the little garden and took a picture of the beaming little fellow with his mobile phone. He immediately forwarded it to his father.

"Is that enough?" asked Jan. He turned around, looked at his pad. "Shall I do it one more time, then it will be really well stamped."

Sjaak nodded at him, smiling, "Well seen, Jan de Boer!"

"My name is Jan Bakker, you know!" he protested, stamping along the path with small steps once more.

"That's fine by me, but today you are Jan de Boer to me, it suits your job much better!" responded Sjaak.

Jan chuckled, having heard the mischievous tone in Sjaak's voice and understanding that it was a joke. After flattening the path twice, he looked back and assessed his pad: "That's how it looks to me, nice and firm!"

"And what did you guys buy to sow again? Onions to plant, and what else?"

Jan picked up the three bags Patrick had put in the bowl for so long.

"This one, this one is... cress! And these two are a kind of lettuce, this one I believe is the lamb's lettuce, and this the one with that difficult name. Again, I don't know that one."

"That one is tricky too, rucola lettuce."

"That one was deliciously spicy right?"

"Right, kind of spicy, herby. And the lamb's lettuce is lettuce with a bit of a nutty flavour. But you don't have to remember that, you have to taste it, then you'll probably never forget it! Shall we start with the cress? Do you find it convenient to divide the whole field into four pieces?"

"Why in four pieces?" asked Jan. "Oh, wait, I see, we have those three bags, and the onions, that's four together. A separate compartment for each kind!"

"Blimey, can you do maths yet?" asked Patrick in amazement.

"Maths?" asked Jan, "what do you mean?"

"Adding up, you were adding up, three and one more, three and one is four."

"Yes, easy, that's just adding one more," thought Jan.

"Okay joker, we'll do it differently, I have two things here to put in the ground later, just hold those two types of lettuce, you have two, and I have the cress and onions here, that's two too. Two and then two more, how much is that together?" asked Patrick.

Jan shrugged, not because he didn't know, but because he actually thought it was a silly question. "That's just the same, isn't it? Also four! We don't suddenly have more stuff or less stuff, do we?"

"Dude, you're smart! You see how it's put together! But we won't continue with maths now, we're going to sow and plant now. Which one shall we do first, does it matter Sjaak?"

"No, actually it doesn't. What do you want to start with Jan?"

"With the cress, because that's the first one ready to cut off."

"Fine, we'll do those first. Do you have any idea how to do it?" asked Sjaak.

"Just sprinkle it?"

"Try picturing it in front of you. If you sprinkle the seeds on the earth, what might happen to them?"

"Oh, then the birds will come and peck them! I don't want that!"

"You've thought of that very well! And there's another thing. If you sprinkle them on the earth, and spray water over them at the end, what else could go wrong?"

Jan envisioned, "Then when I spray over them, I'll wash away the seeds!"

"You're absolutely right, then you wash them away. And after that, what could happen next?"

Jan visibly thought deeply as he looked at the still empty little garden. He looked up at Sjaak. Sjaak understood that Jan had no idea. He said nothing, but looked up at the sun. Jan looked at the same spot and understood, "The sun, the sun would make them all dry. Then they would get sunstroke!"

Patrick and Sjaak shot into laughter: "I've never heard of that, that seeds could also get sunstroke," claimed Sjaak, "but actually you're right. That sun dries out the seeds completely! And then they die... And then another thing. When a seed starts to grow, what comes up at the bottom?"

"Roots! Those grow down to drink water there!"

"That's absolutely right! And those little roots help with something else, along with the little stem that will grow upwards. Together they give the little plant strength, so that it doesn't immediately fall over and break if a little wind passes by."

Sjaak saw Jan thinking and let him.

"That's why they also need to be a bit deeper, so the plants will sit more firmly later on. Anything else, Sjaak?"

"No, I don't think so, we've already come up with so many reasons why we shouldn't just sprinkle them loose on the earth. Here on the back of the packet are some things drawn and written to help us a bit. Here by that little vertical arrow," Sjaak moved his finger from top to bottom and back next to the little sign, "by this you can see that they don't need to be very deep. It says 1 cm next to it." Sjaak grabbed Jan's hand and pointed to his little finger. "1 cm is about as long as this, one phalanx, one piece of your little finger. That's about how deep the seeds should be. Furthermore, they can be quite close together, which is not a problem for cress. So if you make a trench in the ground, a groove as deep as that piece of your little finger, you can sprinkle the seeds in there."

"Just make a trench like that?" asked Jan, as he stuck his little finger forward and moved back and forth.

"Yes, but it can also be done with your index finger, that might feel better, but you can measure with your little finger how deep the trench should be. Approximately, it doesn't matter very much though," Sjaak replied.

Together with Patrick, he watched Jan making a trench with his index finger and checking with his little finger in different places whether it was deep enough.

"There could be another trench here, I think," Jan said. Not waiting for an answer, he pulled another trench, and a third.

He gloated: "We can really sprinkle a lot of seeds, Patrick! Did we buy enough?"

"I think so," Patrick said, tapping the bag of cress seeds against his hand to make the seeds fall down into the bag as much as possible. "Do you want to tear off the top?"

Jan took the bag from him. Fearing the seeds would fall out, he asked Patrick to hold the bag at the bottom. A moment later, he scattered the seeds in the bowl.

"May I?" he asked eagerly.

"Go ahead," said Sjaak, watching to make sure Jan didn't take too much at once. Jan hesitated for a moment there too, how best to do this. Not with the bowl itself, then he would empty it in one trench. He grabbed some seeds between thumb and forefinger and sprinkled them in one of the trenches. Quietly he worked through, dividing the seeds among the three trenches.

It moved Patrick, how their new discoverer, who had been so shocked by the school phenomenon, learned things so smoothly and now distributed the seeds with such calmness. He took a few pictures of him, and decided to send them to Bert and Annelies later, maybe as a collage or something. He would then immediately ask them, if they would approve, if he would put such a collage on their website.

Jan finished, the tray was empty.

"Shall I cover them now?" he asked Sjaak.

Sjaak nodded: "Go ahead, and I must say you have distributed them in a very nice way! Just cover your kiddies!"

"Hahaha my kiddies! Sleep well darlings!" laughed Jan to the seed, as he covered them with earth.

"Are we going to spray right now, or shall we just do that later, when I have sown the rest too? Later on, hey, all at once?"

"That seems convenient yes," Patrick responded. "Do you still feel like continuing?"

"Yes, I want to get everything ready today and then next time see if they have grown yet. If I don't come every day yet, will you make sure they stay wet enough?"

"Good that you ask, I'll put it in my mobile for tomorrow because I don't want to forget."

.

Jan worked quietly that morning, even got the onions still in the ground. Only there was no time for watering at that point.

"We'll have to do that right after lunch then, you know," he said eagerly, "otherwise those seeds and those onions will all die!"

While Patrick promised and Sjaak went home satisfied, Rosalie just came out: "Are you coming too, it's time to eat! I've already set the table!"

"Fine Rosalie, thank you, I'm quite hungry for a sandwich. You too, Jan?"

"Yes, I really do! Working outside makes you hungry!"

Patrick smilingly put his hand on Jan's shoulder and walked in after him.

During the meal, Rosalie told him she had started her fourth long story. "It's about a cow on the farm. She doesn't like it there, because most of the cows don't like her, and then she tries to run away. I don't know how it goes on yet. All I know is that she hasn't succeeded yet."

"Sad," Jan thought, "sad that they don't like her, but I'm glad she couldn't run away, because what is a cow to do all alone outside the farm? That can't go well! She can eat grass by the side of the road for a while, but on the road it's dangerous. And who can milk her? Soon those udders will snap apart... If you go ahead, let her stay in the pasture. They'll just have to solve it some other way."

Rosalie looked at him in surprise. "You really understand those cows! You just feel them! Nice is that... By the way, I printed out my first stories and put them in a folder. You or Annelies can take those home to read this afternoon."

Jan nodded. "Is good, my mum and dad want to make books, maybe they can make books out of your stories too."

He said it nonchalantly, just a little idea, but to Rosalie it sunk in.

"Make books out of my stories? Is that really possible?"

"Probably, I'll ask," Jan replied.

He was tired. All the impressions and working outside... it had been quite a lot. But he pulled himself together, blinking his eyes regularly to stay awake, because he really still wanted to water his vegetable garden. The seeds and onions needed water.

Patrick saw how much effort he had to make to stay awake. As soon as Jan finished his sandwich and drink, he said, "Jan, it's not nice to walk away from the table, but I think we shouldn't keep your seeds and onions waiting too long. Shall we spray them first?"

Jan nodded: "Yes, we will! I'll be right back!"

Patrick gestured to Bea and Ineke, a gesture to let them know that Jan was almost asleep. They smiled, raising their thumbs.

Rosalie looked at both men and then asked, "What was going on?"

"Patrick had noticed Jan almost falling asleep. He must be tired, everything is new here, and I think he was incredibly enthusiastic about it. And it could also be that he didn't sleep much last night because of the excitement. Tell you what, I'll just consult with Annelies."

Bea called Jan's mother and told her how things were going but that he was very tired. "He and Patrick are now watering the vegetable garden together, he wouldn't want to leave that to someone else, but I think he is wobbling on his feet. What do you think, would it be convenient if you pick him up in a minute and he comes for another half-day tomorrow or so?"

There was silence for a moment, Bea listening to Annelies.

"Every day just the morning? Maybe that's not at all crazy for the beginning. If that continues to go well, we can always expand to a whole day every now and then."

Annelies said something else...

"We'll talk about the money another time, we can also just do it this first month according to how many half-days he's been. Do you think that's a good idea?"

...

"Yes, is good, discuss it tonight, then we'll hear about it tomorrow or the day after. See you soon!"

Fifteen minutes later, when Jan and Patrick came back in, they found Annelies there in the cosy sitting area.

"Mum - I really don't want to go home yet, it's so much fun here!"

A big yawn followed.

"That's why you don't have to wait until next week. If you go home with me now, sleep for a while, then you can go back tomorrow morning. Does that seem like a good idea to you?"

"Tomorrow already?.... yawn... yes, I'll go with you then. Is that okay Patrick?"

"I think that's a great idea. I like it if you can come tomorrow already again. Annelies, I think Rosalie wants to give you something else." Patrick nodded to Rosalie.

"Oh yes, your stories! Can I really read them?"

Rosalie nodded eagerly: "Gladly, and if you like them, you can turn them into books. That's what Jan said, that you can!"

Annelies laughed: "We can't do it now, but we are setting up a printing shop, and when that is ready, we can. I'll read it first, and then we'll talk about it further! Now hurry home, before Jan falls asleep standing here! Come along, fellow! See you all tomorrow!"

Jan waved, "See you tomorrow, I'll come again tomorrow!" and to Patrick, "Thank you, it was really cool!"

Patrick stroked his hair for a moment: "See you tomorrow, best farmer!"

With a faint smile and eyes almost closing, Jan walked home with his mother.

To chapter 63. They are coming!

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