tha cried
thoughtlessly:

"Oh, but you ought to see Genevieve's, Quentina, if you want to see
nasturtiums!"

"Oh, but I have Carlos," cut in Genevieve, hurriedly, "and Carlos can
make anything grow. What a pretty dark one this is," she finished,
bending over one of the plants.

Quentina's face clouded.

"I don't suppose they are much, really," she admitted. "But I've worked
so hard over them! Father says the earth isn't good at all. I was so
pleased when that big red one came out! I made a poem on it right off:

"'O nasturtium, sweet nasturtium,
Did you blossom just for me?
Where, oh, where did you unearth 'em--
All those colors that I see?'

That's the way it began. Wasn't I lucky to think of that 'unearth 'em?'
Besides, it's really true, you know. They do unearth 'em, and 'twas such
a nice rhyme for nasturtium. Now there's petunia; I think that's a
perfectly beautiful sounding word, but I've never been able to find a
single thing that rhymed with it. I do love flowers so," she added,
after a moment; "but we've never had many. They always burn up, or dry
up, or get eaten up, or just don't come up at all. Of course we've never
had a really pretty place. Ministers like us don't, you know," she
finished cheerfully.

There was no reply to this. Not one of the Happy Hexagons could think of
anything to say. For once even Tilly was at a loss for words. It was
Quentina herself who broke the silence.

"Now tell me all about the East. Let's go up on the gallery and sit
down. I do so want to go East to school; but of course I can't."

"Why not?" asked Bertha.

"Oh, it costs too much," returned Quentina. "You know ministers don't
have money for such things." Her voice was still impersonally cheerful.

"How old are you?" asked Elsie, as they seated themselves on chairs and
steps.

"Sixteen last month."

"Oh, I wish you could go," cried Genevieve. "Wouldn't it be just lovely
if you could come to Sunbridge and go to school with us!"

"Where is Sunbridge? I always thought of it as just 'East,' you know."

"In New Hampshire."

"Oh," said Quentina, with a sigh of disappointment. "I hoped it was in
Massachusetts, near Boston, you know. I thought Alice said it was near
Boston."

"Well, we aren't so awfully far from Boston," bridled Tilly. "It only
takes an hour and a half or less to go there. I go with mother every
little while when I'm home."

Quentina sprang to her