her, though; and I will not have a
party--it's a trouble. Which kind would you take, grandmother?"

"One of the very smallest," says the old lady, laughing; "but stop a
moment. I have one I'll give you;" and she took a beauty from her
pocket, and threw it on the grass by Polly.

"That's the very prettiest apple I ever saw," says the child. "Where
did you get it? Not off our trees. 'Father gave it to you?' and where
did he find it?"

Grandmother did not know.

[Illustration: LITTLE POLLY.]

After admiring her apple a little more, Polly eats it in a most
deliberate manner, enjoying every bite as if it were the first she had
eaten that day, and when she has finished it, gives a contented little
sigh, and sits looking at the fine brown seeds which she holds in
her hand. Presently she says, earnestly,--

"Grandmother!"

"What now, Polly?"

"I wish I had that dear little apple's two brothers and two sisters,
and I would put them in the doll's chest until to-morrow; I wouldn't
eat them to-day, you know."

"I will tell you what you can do," says grandmother. "Are those seeds
in your hand? Go find Dorothy, and ask her to give you the empty
flower-pot from the high shelf at my window; and then you can fill it
with dark earth from one of the flower-beds, and plant them; then by
and by you will have a tree, and can have plenty of your apple's
children."

That was a happy thought. And Polly puts the seeds carefully on a
leaf, and runs to find Dorothy. Now she comes back with a queer little
Dutch china flower-pot, and sits down on the grass again, and makes a
hole in the soft brown earth with her finger, and drops the fine seeds
in.

For days she watered them, and carried them to sunny places; but at
last she grew very impatient, and one morning, when she was all alone
in the garden, very much provoked that they had not made their
appearance, took a twig and explored; and the first poke brought to
light the little seeds, as shiny and brown as when they left the
apple. It was a great disappointment, and Polly caught them up, and
threw them as far away as she could, and with tears in her eyes ran in
to tell grandmother.

"Ah," said the dear old lady, "it was not time! Thou hast not learned
thy lesson of waiting; and no wonder, when there are few so hard, and
thou art still so young."

Then she sent Polly back to the garden, and the pot was put in its
place, again. And a week or two after, as grandmother was just goin