24 VIOLET MYSTERIES 



her. Then she called to me, and asked : " What 

 color is the ground here, child?" 



I was so excited that I called out " green," 

 although it really was purple with Violets. 



" Here are our city friends," said Grand- 

 mother, " long-stemmed Purple Violets, with 

 rounded, heart-shaped leaves. They are the so- 

 called Common Blue Violets, although you and I 

 think they are purple." Here, in the high grass, 

 many of them grew very tall, for they had to 

 lift their buds up high enough for the sunshine to 

 kiss them open. We each picked a bunch of these 

 Violets. It could do them no harm, Grandmother 

 said, because, like Pansies in the garden, the more 

 they were picked the better they would bloom. 



All through the grass we saw small, white 

 flowers, with three, pretty, pointed leaflets which 

 grew on slender stems. The blossoms, I noticed, 

 had five petals, as I have learned to call flower 

 leaves, and in shape they reminded me of a beau- 

 tiful Wild Rose. Only they were not nearly so 

 large. 



" Do not pick them," Grandmother said. 

 " They fade very quickly, while if left here each 

 little blossom will turn Into a wild strawberry." 



" Then I can pick and eat them," I cried. 



Before going on to the woods we went into the 

 swampy field, and just after we left the wet place, 

 where we can only keep our feet dry by stepping 

 on big tufts of grass. Grandmother stooped down 



