commodities, and large bouquets of
flowers and plants in their hands. They did not see Mary at the window,
and as they all seemed to be good-natured and satisfied with their
afternoon's work, Mary did not speak to them; and so they passed along
into the yard undisturbed. They proceeded immediately to the cabinet in
the play room, and then began to take out their treasures from their
baskets, and pockets, and handkerchiefs, and to spread them out upon the
floor, and upon the bench. In a short time, the floor was covered with
specimens of plants and minerals, with shells, and pebbles, and little
papers of sand, and nuts, and birds' nests which they had found
deserted, and all sorts of wonders. The room was filled with the sound
of their voices; questions, calls to one another, expressions of
delight, exclamations of surprise, or of disappointment or pleasure. It
was all,--"James, you are treading on my flowers!" "O Lucy, Lucy, see my
toadstool!" "O, now my prettiest shell is broken!" "Move away a little,
Rollo--I have not got room for all my pebbles"--"Where's my silk worm?
now where's my silk worm?" "O Henry, give me some of your birch bark,
do,"--and a hundred other similar ejaculations, all uttered together.

They soon began, one and another, to put their curiosities into the
cabinet,--and then it was, as the old phrase is, confusion worse
confounded. Lucy had some discretion and forbearance, and kept a little
back, looking, however, uneasy and distressed, and attempting in vain
to get an opportunity to put some of her things in. The boys crowded
around the cabinet, each attempting to put his own curiosities into the
most conspicuous places, and arranging them over and over again,
according as each one's whims or fancies varied.

"O dear me," said Rollo, "I wish you would not keep moving these pebbles
away, Henry."

"Why, you put them too far this way," said Henry; "I want my shells to
go here."

"No," replied Rollo, "put your shells down on the next shelf. James!
James! take care; don't touch that birds' nest."

"Yes, I want room for my silver stone," said James. He had found a
shining stone, which he called a silver stone. And thus they disputed,
and talked loudly and vociferously, and contradicted, interrupted,
pushed, and crowded each other. Still, they were all good-natured; that
is, they were not angry; the difficulty only arose from their eagerness
and their numbers,--and their disorganization.

"O dear m