of gay or fragrant posies. She was very
fond of her garden, and delved away in it at all hours, watching over
her roses, and pansies, sweet-peas, and mignonette, as faithfully and
tenderly as she did over her dolls or her friends. Little nosegays were
sent into town on all occasions, and certain vases about the house
were her especial care. She had all sorts of pretty fancies about her
flowers, and loved to tell the children the story of the pansy, and show
them how the step-mother-leaf sat up in her green chair in purple and
gold; how the two own children in gay yellow had each its little seat,
while the step children, in dull colors, both sat on one small stool,
and the poor little father in his red nightcap, was kept out of sight
in the middle of the flower; that a monk's dark face looked out of the
monk's-hood larkspur; that the flowers of the canary-vine were so like
dainty birds fluttering their yellow wings, that one almost expected
to see them fly away, and the snapdragons that went off like little
pistol-shots when you cracked them. Splendid dollies did she make out of
scarlet and white poppies, with ruffled robes tied round the waist with
grass blade sashes, and astonishing hats of coreopsis on their
green heads. Pea-pod boats, with rose-leaf sails, received these
flower-people, and floated them about a placid pool in the most charming
style; for finding that there were no elves, Daisy made her own,
and loved the fanciful little friends who played their parts in her
summer-life.

Nan went in for herbs, and had a fine display of useful plants, which
she tended with steadily increasing interest and care. Very busy was
she in September cutting, drying, and tying up her sweet harvest, and
writing down in a little book how the different herbs are to be used.
She had tried several experiments, and made several mistakes; so she
wished to be particular lest she should give little Huz another fit by
administering wormwood instead of catnip.

Dick, Dolly, and Rob each grubbed away on his small farm, and made more
stir about it than all the rest put together. Parsnips and carrots were
the crops of the two D.'s; and they longed for it to be late enough to
pull up the precious vegetables. Dick did privately examine his carrots,
and plant them again, feeling that Silas was right in saying it was too
soon for them yet.

Rob's crop was four small squashes and one immense pumpkin. It really
was a "bouncer," as every one sai