BLUE FLOWERS THAT COME LATE 279 



ran to the highest point and shouted with all his 

 might. 



When Tommy does that he makes a great noise. 

 I saw the leaves on the trees shake, and a iew 

 fell down, but Old Adam never stirred. 



" It's because the flowers have left the rock that 

 it looks so sad," I told Lucy, and then we tried to 

 count all the different ones that had come and gone 

 since the first Hepaticas. We could never get the 

 number exactly right, though, because when 

 Tommy counted he forgot some, and when I 

 counted I forgot others. 



Lucy said: " Perhaps Mother Nature has sent 

 all the flowers she has for this season, and that is 

 why the rock is left with only dead leaves falling 

 around it." 



We all thought this might be true. Then 

 Tommy spoke again about Fringed Gentian. 



" I know its ways and how it looks," he said, 

 " even if I have never found it. There is a pic- 

 ture of it in nearly every one of my flower books. 

 The flower would make most girls think of an old- 

 fashioned garden pink, although it is not a 

 bit like the Carnations Herr Wilhelm Fritz has 

 in the glass-house. Blue Gentian has just four 



petals " 



" Lucy," I said, " he means the flower's leaves." 

 " And all around them there is a fine, long 

 fringe," Tommy said, not minding that I had in- 

 terrupted him. " It is a wonderful blue, as bright 



