can twist these pliant sort of reeds in and out."

_Schillie._--"Reeds, June! those are not reeds, I wonder what these are?
They must be all of the same family, only these are young ones.
Something of the willow sort, I imagine."

_Mother._--"Well! we can twist them in and out between the stems."

_Schillie._--"Or perhaps they are a species of gigantic rush, but that
we shall know by the flower."

_Mother._--"Twist them in and out like basket work."

_Schillie._--"I wish you would cease with your twistings in and out, and
help me to guess what these things are."

_Mother._--"My dear, I have guessed long ago, and think I am quite right
too in my guess."

_Schillie._--"And why are you so unkind as not to tell me? you know how
anxious I am."

_Mother._--"I am quite surprised that you did not see at once, they are
only gigantic 'fighting cocks,' as we used to call plantain in our
youth."

_Schillie._--"You are the greatest----, well! I won't say what with your
fighting cocks. Come, go on about your blessed old hut."

_Mother._--"But it is not an old hut, inasmuch as it is not built yet,
or even begun, nor does it seem likely to be begun, as we have
quarrelled three times over merely of what it is to be made."

_Schillie._--"Then now I won't trouble you any more, I will think of
nothing but this hut, and will do whatever you bid me. But you must
promise me, that if I help you, that no one else is to share it with us.
I won't have any fidgety girls, or sick boys to come and wear one to
death with their nonsense."

_Mother._--"Pooh, pooh, you know who will be the first to invite them
in, however, I only mean it for us two."

So to work we set, and in a short time had so changed our relative
positions, that I was scolded for not working hard enough, and having
entered thoroughly into the business, she took the command, and I
willingly obeyed her sage orders. She had a capital head for
contrivance, and consequently treated some of my suggestions with scorn
and indifference. In fact, my notion of "twisting in and out" so often
mentioned, was immediately pronounced as a trap for musquitos,
scorpions, and such like. We were to have our hut made partly of boughs,
partly of sods, partly of mud. This was to keep it cool. Over all we
placed the large smooth plantain leaves and it really did not look
amiss, but something like the little round mushroom huts of the charcoal
burners. It took us four days to complete it. We