ly.

"Sit there and write what I tell you," ordered Thorny, with all the
severity of a strict schoolmaster. Perching himself on the mossy stump,
Ben obediently floundered through the following analysis, with constant
help in the spelling, and much private wonder what would come of it:--

"Phaenogamous. Exogenous. Angiosperm. Polypetalous. Stamens, more
than ten. Stamens on the receptacle. Pistils, more than one and
separate. Leaves without stipules. Crowfoot family. Genus ranunculus.
Botanical name, Ranunculus bulbosus."

"Jerusalem! what a flower! Pistols and crows' feet, and Polly put the
kettles on, and Angy sperms and all the rest of 'em! If that's your
botany, I won't take any more, thank you," said Ben, as he paused as hot
and red as if he had been running a race.

"Yes, you Will; you'll learn that all by heart, and then I shall give
you a dandelion to do. You'll like that, because it means dent de lion,
or lion's tooth; and I'll show them to you through my glass. You've no
idea how interesting it is, and what heaps of pretty things you'll see,"
answered Thorny, who had already discovered how charming the study was,
and had found great satisfaction in it, since he had been forbidden more
active pleasures.

"What's the good of it, anyway?" asked Ben, who would rather have been
set to mowing the big field than to the task before him.

"It tells all about it in my book here,--'Gray's Botany for Young
People.' But I can tell you what use it is to us," continued Thorny,
crossing his legs in the air and preparing to argue the matter,
comfortably lying flat on his back. "We are a Scientific Exploration
Society, and we must keep an account of all the plants, animals,
minerals, and so on, as we come across them. Then, suppose we get lost,
and have to hunt for food, how are we to know what is safe and what
isn't? Come, now, do you know the difference between a toadstool and a
mushroom?"

"No, I don't."

"Then I'll teach you some day. There is sweet flag and poisonous flag,
and all sorts of berries and things; and you'd better look out when you
are in the woods, or you'll touch ivy and dogwood, and have a horrid
time, if you don't know your botany."

"Thorny learned much of his by sad experience; and you will be wise to
take his advice," said Miss Celia, recalling her brother's various
mishaps before the new fancy came on.

"Didn't I have a time of it, though, when I had to go round for a week
with plantain