see me. While they were waiting for you they began to talk
of Edith Chenowyth and of something dreadful she had been doing. They
called her a very bad girl. When you came in they spoke to you about her
and you said 'Poor child, I am sorry for her;' and they were quite angry
that you should pity her. Just before they left I made some slight
noise, and Mrs. Vale said, 'I hope no one heard what we've said,' and
you said, 'I hope not, I am sure.' So I thought you would not want me to
know of it or I should have asked you about what it all meant.

"Yesterday I heard some of the girls talking and one said, 'Did you know
that Edith Chenowyth had a baby last night? She is down at old Mrs.
Fein's. Her folks have turned her out of the house.' Then Clara Downs
said, 'Well, they ought to turn her out, acting as she has.' Then they
all said such dreadful things of her! And while they were talking, Cora
Lee came up and said, 'O, girls, I am an Auntie! My sister Ada had the
loveliest baby boy last night and my father gave her $500 because it is
his first grandson; and the baby's father opened a bank account in the
name of Charles Wyndham Bell. Ada is just as happy as she can be and we
are all so proud.'

"Now, mother, Ada Lee and Edith Chenowyth were in the same class at
school; they sang a duet together on the day of their graduation and
Edith was just as lovely as Ada. Now she has a baby and every one
scorns her, while Ada has one and she is honored and loved. I wish you'd
explain this to me."

"Well, my daughter, you see Ada is married and Edith is not."

"Yes, I know that; and yet that does not explain to me why a child
should be an honor to one and a disgrace to the other. I know people
think so, but I want to know why."

"In order to make you understand why, I shall have to take you back to
your lessons in botany. You recall how you learned there of the
reproduction of plants. You learned that the pollen must pass down the
style and fertilize the seed before it would grow; and you learned that
the stamen, anther and pollen were the male part of the plant and the
ovary, style and stigma the female part of the plant."

"Yes, and I remember that I thought it rather silly that in a school
book the plants should be spoken of as people, as if it were a fairy
story."

"And yet, my dear, it was only stating an actual fact, and was not, as
you fancied, a fairy story. There are really fathers and mothers among
plants; if there wer