arped disk of a sunflower that had cast its
seeds--"dead." What should hinder me from making it alive? It looked
like a hedgehog, or some other animal. It _should_ be an animal! Food of
the right kind, and plenty of heat, were all it needed.

"Carbon and animal heat!" uttered I, consequentially, swelling with the
prospective joy of creation.

Already I foresaw, in imagination, the tremor of the coming breath
running through the uncouth body that would then put out, from
mysterious hiding-places, head and limbs and tail, as buds unfold into
flowers. I would confide to nobody what I was going to undertake. But I
would do it! I would keep up animal heat, hour after hour, day after
day, until my--Creature--breathed and moved and grew!

Without delay I hied me to the kitchen, and begged a cold sausage and a
pone of corn-bread from Aunt 'Ritta. She made no objection beyond asking
why I "wanted sassage 'n' corn-bread in de middle o' de mawnin', 'stead
o' piece o' cake, or somethin' sweet."

"Because the weather is so cold," I replied briefly, and got what I
wished with a grunt of "Dat's so, honey!" Negroes are constitutionally
averse to winter and cold, and recognize, without knowing why, the
carboniferous properties of pork and pone. I bore my treasures off to
the dining room, shut the door, and began my experiment in the hottest
flare of the fireshine.

[Illustration: MOLLY'S EXPERIMENT.

"I hied me to the kitchen and begged a cold sausage and a pone of
corn-bread from Aunt 'Ritta."]

The sunflower disk was a curiosity to me. It had curled inward upon
itself, leaving a considerable cavity within. I stuffed this with the
bread and sausage, crumbled fine, ruminating, the while, upon the
probability that the sausage and cakes I had devoured presented the like
appearance by the time they reached my stomach. When the variegated and
viscid compound was tucked away, I wound a soft string about the disk to
keep it in shape, and enveloped it, first in raw cotton, then in a bit
of red flannel. In my uncertainty as to which end would bourgeon into a
head, and from which would be evolved the tail, I left both ends open
that IT might be able to breathe when breath came. Lastly, I secreted it
under my cricket. It was what was known as "a box cricket," and the
enclosing sides came to within three inches of the floor. It stood at
the warmest corner of the hearth, and I was well-nigh roasted by the
time I had sat upon it long enough