JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT 51 



leaves than Jack's that grow tall, and are rounded, 

 and have a soft feeling like velvet. But I cannot 

 find their flowers. I have turned them over and 

 over, and peeped under them, and still there is 

 not a bud in sight. It isn't as though I had only- 

 seen one or two of these leaves. I might have 

 forgotten them then. But I meet them very 

 often, and quite a number of them grow together. 

 There are places in the woods where they snuggle 

 by each other very closely. I thought It was not 

 yet time for them to bloom, so when Philip Todd 

 told me they already had their flowers, I kept very 

 still, thinking he was playing some joke. 



" I'll show you those flowers," he said, " and 

 when I do, you'll say, no wonder you didn't find 

 them yourself." 



We went to a patch of leaves, and Philip 

 got down on his knees and began poking in the 

 soil with his finger. I thought every minute 

 he would let his joke out, and so I was surprised 

 when he did lift up from the earth a real flower. 

 It was a curious little brown thing, shaped some- 

 thing like a bell, and covered with earth. It 

 seemed to want to cuddle down, and fairly get 

 inside the earth. I said: "So you are a little 

 flower that doesn't want to lift up your pretty 

 head." 



Philip said: "It wants to burrow Into the 

 earth like a woodchuck. Its name Is Wild Gin- 

 ger, and the reason It Is called that Is because 



