st and joyous thrill
Of things, when they start to grow."

"I've wondered if they do get out of the seed with a little cracky pop,"
said Ethelwyn.

"What, sister?" asked Beth, coming up on Ninkum.

"Flowers and things."

"I've wondered how things know how to make themselves flowers, and not
potatoes, or something like that," said Beth; "but I suppose God tells
them."

"And I've often thought what was it that makes part of them stalk and
leaves, and then all at once end in a flower," said Ethelwyn. Then,
after a moment's silence, she proposed, "Let's have another game."

"Yes, mother, you think of one."

"I was thinking of one this morning," said mother, "for I thought likely
you would be asking me to make up one, though it isn't my turn."

"O, but motherdy, you are so much smarter than we are!" said Ethelwyn.

"That is one way to get out of it," said mother, laughing. "Well, I will
tell you a story, and leave a blank occasionally, which you must fill up
with the name of a tree.

"There were two little girls who dressed exactly alike, and, as they
were very near the same age, it was difficult to tell which was the--"

"Elder?" said Ethelwyn, after a hard think.

"Yes."

"I didn't really know there was such a tree, but I had heard something
like it, and thought there wasn't a younger tree."

"One of the little girls was named Louise and the other Minerva, and
people grew to calling them by their initials, which together made--"

"Elm," said Beth.

"They were very good children, and people used to say what a nice--"

"Pear," they both said at once.

"They were. They had cheeks like a--"

"Peach."

"It was spring, and they were invited to a sugaring off party, and they
saw the men tap the trees to make--"

"Maple sugar," cried Beth, who knew that, if she knew anything.

"So, when they went home, they tapped a tree in the front yard, and
invited a party to come and eat maple sugar; but they tapped the wrong
tree, and their father was vexed, saying, 'I ought to take a ---- to
----'"

But mother had to tell them these words for they had never heard of
birch, or of yew. "'I wonder if you will be ----'"

"Evergreen," said Ethelwyn, after a little prompting.

"'All your life.' 'I thought,' said one, 'that maple sugar parties were
very ----'"

"'Pop'lar? (mother had to tell them this also), 'at this time of year.'"

"---- laughed their father."

"Haw, haw," said Ethelwyn, who had been thi