I 



THE REFORMATION OF MARY HOG AN 195 



"Well, why Pete?" 



"They only have to pay a man fifty cents a day to work over 

 there and we have to pay a dollar and a half!" 



Miss Lacy had become so interested in the lesson that she 

 forgot about being discouraged and annoyed; she even forgot 

 about Mary Hogan and her followers. She had always had the 

 faculty of interesting others in whatever she herself was interested 

 in; for this reason she had always been a leader in school. She 

 was delighted now, to find that her gift had not failed her; every 

 one in the room was listening intently. 



Before she could reply to Pete, Mary Long, asked earnestly, 

 "Why does God make weeds to bother people so?" 



Almost before Miss Lacy knew it, a heated argument arose and 

 to her surprise, Mary Hogan defended the weed against the whole 

 school. Never before had Josephine Lacy heard the girl talk; 

 when called upon to recite, her invariable answer had been a 

 brief, "I don't know!" 



Had Josephine Lacy known more of Mary Hogan's life, she 

 would have better understood why weeds appealed to her. 

 Motherless, the girl had come up among strangers and, not un- 

 like a weed, she had held her own in spite of every one's hand 

 being raised against her. 



When the discussion had gone far enough. Miss Lacy rapped 

 with her pencil for order. "Watch, while I drop some seeds which 

 have their coverings on into this glass of water," she commanded, 

 holding it up to view. "Now I will put some of the seeds with- 

 out their coverings in and see what happens." 



"Those with the coverings float, and those without them sink," 

 cried several children at once. 



"Can you see why?" 



Receiving no reply, she pointed to three little swellings on the 

 outside of the cover. "They are made of a corky material and 

 act to float the seed on water." 



"It makes the seeds float just like a life preserver holds you up 

 in the water," Ned O'Brien remarked, rising in his excitement, 

 and poking the seeds to try and make them sink. 



"Can any of you children see, that it is an advantage to Curled 

 Dock to have its seeds float on water?" 



Quick as a flash, Mary Hogan answered, "They may be floated 

 from place to place on the water." 



