sameness."
"Well, but I don't find so many," said Esther. "Am I queer?"
"Not a bit of it?"
"You speak as if it was an honour to be queer," said the young lady,
bridling her pretty head.
"An honour? I don't know about that," said Norton. "It certainly may be
said to be a--distinction."
"Who is queer?" said Esther. "You?"
"Not he," said David.
"You know best," said Norton, shaking his curly head.
"He thinks he has so much else to distinguish him," said Judy, "he can
do without that."
"Not _your_ case," said Norton, politely nodding at her.
"Don't depend upon your word," said Judy scornfully.
"Not at all," rejoined Norton; "it is open to the most hasty observer."
"Is Matilda queer?" Esther asked laughing.
"She'd never let the world go to sleep," said Norton contentedly; "at
least, not till all could sleep comfortably."
They laughed at that, and Matilda as much as anybody.
"But what did you mean, Norton," she said, "about the bulbs and the
country?"
"Just what I said. It's the most mysterious thing, the way the roots
down in the earth know when it is time for them to send up their green
shoots. They will do it, too, and when things aren't ready for them by
any means above ground. Spring may be ever so late, and the earth hard
packed with frost, and snow and clouds making you believe it is winter
yet; and there will come the little green shoots pushing up their heads
and telling you _they_ know what time of year it is, better than you
do. How they get up through the frozen earth is more than I know. I
tell you, _they_ are queer."
"Then you mean something good by being queer, Norton," Matilda said.
"Don't know about that; they are ahead of the year, you see, and that
don't always do. They have a hard time of it, sometimes."
"But are you going up to see them?"
"Yes; pretty soon. The coverings must be taken off the beds, you see;
and I must look after it."
"I am so glad spring is come again!" said Esther.
"What for, you?" said Norton. "You don't make garden."
"No; but I can eat strawberries."
"Strawberries! O ho, that's it. That's what you want spring for."
"I am sure strawberries are good, Norton," said Matilda. "Do you
remember how you and I eat strawberries on the bank last summer?--and
made lists?"
Norton gave her a very intelligent glance of acknowledgment.
"Lists of what?" Judy asked.
"Things we were going to have for tea," Norton answered coolly.
"O no, N
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