ANSWERS TO FRANCIS'S LETTER 45 



and turned pale, and how their hearts beat when- 

 ever they felt the earth about them stirred by foot- 

 steps. 



Even when they are picked they are carried 

 off to see a world they know nothing about, and 

 then are thrown away because they fade. It's 

 very odd," Tommy went on, for he was In one of 

 his talking moods, " that grown people sometimes 

 say flowers have no feelings. Many flowers go to 

 sleep, like the Spring Beauty, and awake just 

 as regularly as I do. Others are so sensitive that 

 they close their leaves at the slightest touch of 

 my hand. It is a pity that they can never speak 

 out boldly and let people know how much they 

 feel. They can't even cry like babies, until they 

 get just what they want." 



"Am I to put all that in Francis's letter?" 

 Grandmother asked. " It seems that a boy with so 

 much feeling for flowers has small mercy for our 

 postman's shoulders." 



Tommy laughed and said perhaps he had bet- 

 ter write a letter to Francis himself; but that he 

 should not do it until after he had had a good 

 tramp hunting for Wake-robins. 



Philip Todd is quite sure he is going to get 

 Grandmother's prize, and says any flower is easy 

 enough to find ; but I think it will either be Sallie 

 or Tommy who first tells her where the Wake- 

 robin grows. Tommy himself seems to think 

 that Sallie will win the prize. I have noticed that 



