Birds and Elephant with relation.

Outside in the hall there was the stealthy tread of two little pairs of feet. There was the gentlest of little taps. There was a warning "Sh." Then mamma cried, "Come in."

Jack opened the door, and Phyllis entered, with her hands behind her. Jack followed, with his hands behind him.

"Guess, mamma, dear!" cried Phyllis. "Guess what we have for you!"

"An apple?" guessed mamma.

"Something sweeter," said Phyllis.

"Candy?"

"Something sweeter," said Phyllis. "Do you give up?"

"I give up," said mamma.

The little girl placed a basket of forget-me-nots on the broad, flat arm of her mother's chair.

The little boy placed a basket of pansies in full bloom on the other arm of the chair.

"Oh," cried mamma, "how lovely! It's like bringing the garden into the room."

"Just what we said," Jack cried. "We saw these baskets of flowers as we came up from the square, and we bought them for you. You see they are planted and blossoming nicely for you. They will be just right for your window. Shall we put them there?"

"By and by," said mamma. "I want to see first if these flowers will talk to me as they do to Phyllis."

"Why, of course," said Phyllis. "I only get their secrets by watching."

"I know a lovely name for the pansy," said mamma. "My grandmother used to call pansies heartsease. I always think of her when I look into their bright little faces.

"The pansy is a relative of the violet, you know. In fact, I think it is a violet grown more gorgeous by cultivation."

"Yes," said Phyllis, "it has five petals, just as the violet has. The two upper ones are larger and longer than the other."

"Just look at the soft, velvety colours," said Jack. "See how they nod on their green stems. Never more than one blossom on a stalk, is there?"

"No, no," laughed Phyllis. "And look the heart-shaped leaves. They are thick and strong and green."

"I believe I like the forget-me-not best," said mamma. "It belongs to an entirely different family. It is not so gorgeous as the pansy, but it blossoms all summer long, just as the pansy does, and its blossoms seem to look up at one like little blue eyes uplifted.

"Look at the delicate blossoms in tiny bunches. Do you see how round and flat the corolla is? We call it salver shaped. A salver, you know, is a flat tray–and that is the reason we say the forget-me-not is salver shaped.

"Its leaves do not grow as pansy leaves do. They grow upon the stem with the blossoms, and there are many of them. They alternate upon the stem, and they are small and pointed."

"Does it grow only in gardens?" Jack asked.

"Oh, no, indeed; in some places it grows wild, in low, wet places, or on the banks of streams. But I shall be very happy with these little blossoms on my window-sill. Will you put them there for me now?"

"Mamma," said Phyllis, "I found a little forget-me-not poem yesterday. Shall I say it for you before we go?"

"Yes, indeed, that would be a very sweet way of saying good night."

So Phyllis placed the baskets in the window, and, coming back, stood before her mother and repeated these lines:

"When to the flowers so beautiful,
The Father gave a name,
Back came a little blue-eyed one,
All timidly it came.
And standing at its Father's feet,
And gazing in his face,
It said in low and trembling tones,
And with a modest grace,
'Dear God, the name thou gavest me,
Alas, I have forgot.'
The Father kindly looked Him down,
And said, 'Forget-me-not.' "

Mamma's eyes were closed when Phyllis finished, and the children tiptoed softly out of the room.