he door of a friend, ring the bell or rattle
the latch, and then scamper off as fast as you can. You have to be
very spry so as to be back at home when your own baskets begin to
arrive; then you must be quick to run out and, if possible, catch the
friend who knocks, and thus find out whom to thank for the flowers."

"How delightful!" cried Frances, charmed at the prospect.

"It is so strange that you did not know about it!" added Ellen.

"Not at all," said Mrs. Moore, who had come out on the veranda where
the young folks were chatting,--Frances swinging in the hammock, Ellen
ensconced in a rustic chair with her fancy-work, and Joe leaning
against a post, and still busy whittling. "Not at all," repeated
Ellen's mother. "In America it is but little observed outside of the
Eastern States. This is one of the beautiful traditionary customs of
Catholic England, which even those austere Puritans, the Pilgrims,
could not entirely divest themselves of; though among them it lost its
former significance. Perhaps it was the gentle Rose Standish or fair
Priscilla, or some other winsome and good maiden of the early colonial
days, who transplanted to New England this poetic practice, sweet as
the fragrant pink and white blossoms of the trailing arbutus, which is
especially used to commemorate it. In Great Britain, though, it may
have originated in the observances of the festivals which ushered in
the spring. On the introduction of Christianity it was retained, and
continued up to within two or three hundred years,--no doubt as a
graceful manner of welcoming the Month of Our Lady. That it was
considered a means of honoring the Blessed Virgin, as well as of
expressing mutual kindness and good-will, we can see; since English
historians tell us that up to the sixteenth century it was usual to
adorn not only houses and gateways, but also the doors as well as the
interior of churches, with boughs and flowers; particularly the
entrances to shrines dedicated to the Mother of God."

"And the 1st of May will be the day after to-morrow!" remarked Frances,
coming back to the present.

"Yes. And to-morrow, right after school--that will be about three
o'clock, you know,--we shall start on our tramp," said Ellen. "As you
do not have to go to school, Frances, you will be able to prepare the
baskets during the morning. Come into the house with me now, and I'll
show you some which I have put away."

II.

The next afternoon many m