36. Theodore Bear tells

Theodore Bear smiled and thought for a minute and then he began to tell.  "Yes, that is so, Shelley," he said. "My garden does not have any grass growing in it.  Instead of a lawn I have a patch of small stones and they do look very nice when they have been raked level.  There are no flowers either but I have many different kinds of cactus plants.  A cactus has thick juicy leaves but they also have very, very long, sharp thorns so I have to be careful when I work around them. Some grow quite tall and they have big, beautiful flowers once a year, red ones, yellow ones or white ones.   You see, I live in a desert.  Not a real sandy desert, but it is terribly dry there and it hardly ever rains.  Sometimes for a short while the rain falls ever so hard and then the streets will be flooded so that one should not drive into any water as it may be deep.  That could be dangerous as the car might be swept away. Then the water dries up and it may not rain again for a whole year."   Shelley's eyes got bigger and bigger.  "Oh," she said and frowned.  "can trees grow there for the birds to live in?"