THE REFORMATION OF MARY HOG AN 193 



Encouraged at the interest she had awakened, Miss Lacy told 

 them that a nose and mouth were not necessary to plants because 

 they could breathe by means of their leaves much as people do 

 with their lungs. She showed them the little rootlets that took 

 up the water from the soil and explained how the water was 

 carried to the leaves, where with a gas called carbon dioxid, 

 the plant makes sugar and starch. She said that when they 

 ate potatoes they were eating starch, which was made , in the 

 leaves of the potato plant. Curled Dock, she said, took 

 what food it needed from the air and soil and then stored some 

 away in the seeds, so that when the little plants came up they 

 would have something to eat. 



While she was talking, she had broken off the seeds and passed 

 them to eaoh of the children. Some of them had taken off the 

 outside covering and had gotten out the little three-cornered 

 light brown seed which was tucked away within. She told them 

 to plant a seed in the soil in the flower pots in the window and to 

 watch, from day to day, to see the little baby plant come up. 



All during the lesson the children sat wrapped in attention. 

 When Miss Lacy had first told them to put aside their books, 

 Mary Hogan left hers on the desk and began to mumble aloud 

 in open defiance. Miss Lacy saw the girl's attitude, but deter- 

 mined not to spoil the lesson by stopping to reprimand her. 

 Failing to get the desired attention from either her teacher or the 

 children about her, the girl sat and sulked in her seat. Soon, 

 however, she found herself listening with the rest. 



When the story was finished, it was time to disraiss school. 

 The children flocked about the desk to ask questions. Even 

 Mary Hogan lingered on the outside of the group, as though half 

 ashamed to show that she was interested. 



The result of the first lesson, had made Miss Lacy hopeful. 

 To her disappointment, the school the next day was more dis- 

 orderly than ever. Mary Hogan seemed bent on avenging the 

 brief loss of power of the previous day. By two o'clock Miss 

 Lacy was so worn and discouraged that she was undecided as to 

 whether to undertake another lesson on nature. Still debating 

 the point with herself, she brought out the Curled Dock and 

 placed it on her table. Although she had kept it in water, the 

 leaves of the plant drooped in a dejected way and Josephine Lacy 

 could not help thinking that Curled Dock looked about as she 

 felt. 



