ed, Jackie and Peggs couldn't hear them
because flowers whisper very softly, and even if the children could
hear them they couldn't understand them, you see, because it's a
different kind of language and they never had heard it.

Sometimes, if you are a child, and sit in the garden when the wind is
blowing, and listen, you may hear a kind of whispering among the
flowers. And if you look very closely, you will see them sway toward
each other and smile and nod their heads. Well, that is when they
whisper in each other's ears just as if they were children.

And all vegetables are like that too, only the corn has a louder
voice, because the wind loves to blow through its ears and make it
wave so it looks like a great green ocean.

"Did we have a mother and father?" asked Peggs.

"Of course!" answered Jackie, "Everybody has to have a mother and a
father, except orphans."

"Are we orphans?" asked Peggs.

"I guess we must be," said Jackie, "I heard Auntie tell somebody, the
other day, that both our parents were lost."

Just then the wind blew Sweetclover toward Kernel Cob, and, if you'd
been there, you could have heard a whispering sound, and, if you'd
been a flower, you would have heard Sweetclover say to Kernel Cob:

"Poor little Peggs!" and if you had looked very closely you would have
seen dew drops in her eyes.

"What did she do?" asked Kernel Cob, and his voice was slow, for you
must remember that it took him a long time to think, because his head
was heavy and so filled up with corn cob. But, like most people who
are slow, he was very determined, and once he made up his mind to do a
thing you might be sure he would do it, no matter what.

"She lost her motheranfather," said Sweetclover.

"Did Jackie lose his motheranfather too?" asked Kernel Cob.

"Of course," answered Sweetclover. "Don't you know that Jackie and
Peggs are brother and sister?"

"Sure," said Kernel Cob.

"Well then," said Sweetclover.

"You didn't tell me," said Kernel Cob.

"Tell you what?" asked Sweetclover.

"If Jackie lost his motheranfather," said Kernel Cob.

"Jackie's motheranfather are the same as Peggs'," explained
Sweetclover.

"Doesn't everybody have his own motheranfather?" asked Kernel Cob.

"Not always," says Sweetclover. "Why?" asks Kernel Cob.

"Please keep quiet," said Sweetclover, "I can't hear what they are
saying."

"If our mother and father are lost," says Peggs, "why doesn't Auntie
try to find them?"