ee sides, two of them white and one
green? The loblolly needle has only two sides, though the under is so
curved that it looks like two; and the 'Table Mountain' has two sides."

"What's the use of remembering all that?" demanded Mary sullenly.

Dorothy, who had been dimpling amusedly as she delivered her lecture,
flushed deeply.

"I don't know," she admitted.

"We like to hear about it because we've been gardening all summer and
anything about trees or plants interests us," explained Tom politely,
though the way in which Mary spoke seemed like an attack on Dorothy.

"I've always found that everything I ever learned was useful at some
time or other," James maintained decidedly. "You never can tell when
this information that Dorothy has given us may be just what we need for
some purpose or other."

"It served Dorothy's purpose just now when she interested us for a few
minutes telling about the different kinds," insisted Ethel Blue, but
Mary walked on before them with a toss of her head that meant "It
doesn't interest me."

Dorothy looked at her mother, uncertain whether to take it as a joke or
to feel hurt. Mrs. Smith smiled and shook her head almost imperceptibly
and Dorothy understood that it was kindest to say nothing more.

They chatted on as they walked through the Botanical Gardens and
exclaimed over the wonders of the hothouses and examined the collections
of the Museum, but the edge had gone from the afternoon and they were
not sorry to find themselves on the train for Rosemont. Mary sat with
Mrs. Smith.

"I really was interested in what Dorothy told about the pines," she
whispered as the train rumbled on; "I was mad because I didn't know
anything that would interest them, too."

"I dare say you know a great many things that would interest them,"
replied Mrs. Smith. "Some day you must tell me about the most
interesting thing you ever saw in all your life and we'll see if it
won't interest them."

"That was in a coal mine," replied Mary promptly. "It was the footstep
of a man thousands and thousands of years old. It made you wonder what
men looked like and how they lived so long ago."

"You must tell us all about it, some time. It will make a good addition
to what we learned to-day about the fossils."

When the Mortons reached home they found Mr. Emerson waiting for them at
their house.

"I've a proposal to make to these children, with your permission,
Marion," he said to his daughter.

"Say on