e, and--we're tired and hungry. What country is
this, please?"

"This is the Rose Kingdom," replied the Moss Rose, haughtily, "and it
is devoted to the culture of the rarest and fairest Roses grown."

"I believe it," said Betsy, admiring the pretty blossoms.

"But only Roses are allowed here," continued a delicate Tea Rose,
bending her brows in a frown; "therefore you must go away before the
Royal Gardener finds you and casts you back into the sea."

"Oh! Is there a Royal Gardener, then?" inquired Betsy.

"To be sure."

"And is he a Rose, also?"

"Of course not; he's a man--a wonderful man," was the reply.

"Well, I'm not afraid of a man," declared the girl, much relieved, and
even as she spoke the Royal Gardener popped into the greenhouse--a
spading fork in one hand and a watering pot in the other.

He was a funny little man, dressed in a rose-colored costume, with
ribbons at his knees and elbows, and a bunch of ribbons in his hair.
His eyes were small and twinkling, his nose sharp and his face puckered
and deeply lined.

"O-ho!" he exclaimed, astonished to find strangers in his greenhouse,
and when Hank gave a loud bray the Gardener threw the watering pot over
the mule's head and danced around with his fork, in such agitation that
presently he fell over the handle of the implement and sprawled at full
length upon the ground.

Betsy laughed and pulled the watering pot off from Hank's head. The
little mule was angry at the treatment he had received and backed
toward the Gardener threateningly.

"Look out for his heels!" called Betsy warningly and the Gardener
scrambled to his feet and hastily hid behind the Roses.

"You are breaking the Law!" he shouted, sticking out his head to glare
at the girl and the mule.

"What Law?" asked Betsy.

"The Law of the Rose Kingdom. No strangers are allowed in these
domains."

"Not when they're shipwrecked?" she inquired.

"The Law doesn't except shipwrecks," replied the Royal Gardener, and he
was about to say more when suddenly there was a crash of glass and a
man came tumbling through the roof of the greenhouse and fell plump to
the ground.

Chapter Six

Shaggy Seeks his Stray Brother

This sudden arrival was a queer looking man, dressed all in garments so
shaggy that Betsy at first thought he must be some animal. But the
stranger ended his fall in a sitting position and then the girl saw it
was really a man. He held an apple in his hand, which he ha