er known to refuse fish before.

"But I knew what was the matter, and every time I think about it all I
just have to laugh. Ha! ha! ha!"

And that is the reason little Pitcher-man is always laughing. He
cannot stop, for he always is thinking about what he saw many years ago
one moonlight night in the pantry.

THE WINDFLOWER'S STORY

[Illustration: The Windflower's Story]

One day a little Windflower growing in a garden heard the Rosebush say
to the Pansies, "What a quiet little creature the Windflower is! She
seems to be a modest little thing, but she never stays here long enough
to get acquainted; so I do not know whether she hides her ignorance by
keeping quiet or is a deep thinker."

"I think she is deep, Miss Rose," said the Hollyhock, near by. "You
know I can see farther than anyone here, and it is my opinion that the
Windflower is deep, and I think, too, she has a story."

"A story!" cried the Pansies, turning up their pretty faces to the
Hollyhock. "Oh, how interesting."

"What do you mean by a story?" asked the Rosebush.

"Oh, I mean she is deep and knows things of which we little dream.
There is something between her and the Wind, but I cannot learn her
secret."

Rosebush held up her head, the Pansies turned their little faces around
and looked at the modest little Windflower to see if they could read
her secret.

"I have no secret the world cannot know," said the Windflower. "All my
family love the Wind; this all the world would know if they knew our
history."

Rosebush and the Pansies and Hollyhock began to question the little
Windflower, and this is what she told them:

"Oh, a long, long time ago some beautiful goddess grieved very much
over the death of some one she dearly loved, and she created in memory
of this friend a beautiful flower which she named Anemone. That is our
real name."

"Oh, how grand is sounds!" said the Rosebush. "Such a big name, too,
for such a little flower."

"Yes, it is big," replied the little Windflower, "but you see we had
nothing at all to do with our name; the Wind fell in love with us and
opened our blossoms--that is the way we happened to be named, I am
told."

"Oh, how interesting!" said the Rosebush, beginning to look with envy
upon the little Windflower.

"But you are a small family, I think," said the Rosebush. "I have seen
very few of your kind in our garden."

"No, we are a numerous and beautiful family," said the Windflower.

"