¹     Laura stared out the window at the snow-heaped ground. It seemed so long since they had had a warm day. She was tired of winter. She was tired of making snowmen. She was tired of heavy boots and cold, wet mittens. Laura wished it would get warm again.
 
²     "What's the matter?" asked Mom.
 
³     "I'm tired of the cold. I wish I could do something else instead of playing in the snow," said Laura.
 
⁴     "I have an idea," said Mom. "We can begin to plan a spring garden, but it would mean going outside for a few minutes."
 
⁵     "That would be great!" said Laura. "Could we please do it now?"
 
⁶     The garden was covered in white snow. They had to step carefully to keep on the path. Mom pointed out one part of the flowerbed. "If you would like, you can choose some plants to grow in this part of the garden. We can go inside the house and look through the seed catalogs."
 
⁷     "Thanks, Mom," said Laura with a smile as they went back to the house. "It will be like a winter spring garden!"
 
⁸     Mom got out some paper and crayons along with the catalogs. Then she got some scissors, tape, and a pencil.

Paragraphs 9 to 16:
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