VIOLET MYSTERIES 27 



found a sharp stone and dug down in a circle 

 around its roots. I was careful not to hurt it, and 

 when I lifted it Grandmother quickly wrapped 

 its roots and earth in some dried leaves. It was 

 easy then to carry it home, and we planted it in 

 a little fig basket, the same one that we had used 

 in March for making a bird's nest basket, and put 

 it on the window-seat, where It is shady, and it 

 can have cool, fresh air like that in the wood. 



When Tommy came to see us again he was sur- 

 prised to hear many of the things Grandmother 

 had to tell us about Violets. He didn't know for 

 one thing that the purple ones were favorite flow- 

 ers of Napoleon. 



Just why Grandmother thinks them so much 

 more modest than other flowers, and why the poets 

 have written about their being modest, neither 

 Tommy nor I could understand. I said I loved 

 the Violet best, but that I thought the white 

 Hepatica had a more modest look than any Vio- 

 let. Tommy thought the Yellow Violet looked 

 downright pert. He asked Grandmother if Napo- 

 leon were a modest man, and if he loved modest 

 people. W^hen she answered, " No, oh dear, no," 

 it only made things more confusing. 



But she said that we should love flowers for 

 their own sake, and have our own impressions 

 about them, no matter what other people thought 

 or wrote about them. 



When I went to bed that night, I felt that I 



