CHAPTER XXXVIII 



FLOWERS THAT HAVE ESCAPED 



There are some flowers that Tommy calls 

 " escapes." At first I didn't know what he meant, 

 for flowers are never shut up in prison, and I could 

 think of no other place for them to escape from. 

 I have learned now, though, that they slip away 

 from gardens, instead of prisons, which makes it 

 quite easy to understand. Perhaps the flowers that 

 escape get tired of living in gardens where they 

 have to stand close to others which they may not 

 like, and where they are always being picked for 

 bouquets. So when they feel this way they send 

 some of their seeds over the wall, and the next 

 year a little company of their children springs up 

 outside the garden. The next year these outside 

 ones send their seeds still farther away, and so 

 things go on until the garden flowers get far out 

 in the meadow, or even Into the woods. Then 

 Tommy looks at them In the wise way that Philip 

 calls " three-quarter," and says, " escapes." 



Once Philip and I planted a Tiger Lily out In 

 Miss Amelia's woods, and showed It to Tommy. 

 We did this because we wanted to fool him into 

 thinking it was a real wild flower. He looked at 

 it for a second or two, then lifted his head In the 

 air as though he were sniffing something, and said : 



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