276 BLUE FLOWERS THAT COME LATE 



I had to pick him up and brush the mud off his 

 clothes. 



" It's Great Lobelia," he said, when he could 

 only have seen blue and not the flower at all. " I 

 didn't know it grew here. But then I know an- 

 other one of its bunks that is not far from where 

 we saw Turtle-head." 



Of course I had to tell Lucy then that when 

 Tommy said " bunks," he meant the places where 

 certain flowers grow best each year. She nodded 

 her head as though she understood. Lucy doesn't 

 talk nearly so much as Tommy and I, or even 

 Philip. 



" Tell us about Great Lobelia," I said, for I 

 wanted her to hear the wonderful way Tommy can 

 talk about wild flowers. 



" First tell me the name of its nearest relative," 

 Tommy said, with his very wise look. 



The bright blue flowers grew in long, narrow 

 bunches at the top of the stems. I touched one 

 with my finger. Two of its pieces stood up 

 straight in the air, and the three others hung down, 

 spreading out a little. But I noticed, sooner than 

 anything else, that along the front of the flower 

 there was a little slit, open place. The leaves 

 were long and narrow, and grew one above the 

 other on the stem. Perhaps they were a little 

 thinner than most leaves, but there was nothing 

 to make me think them especially pretty. 



" It's late for this flower," Tommy said. " It 



