Now bring me a 'leontodon taraxacum,'" said Thorny, charmed with the quickness of his pupil, and glad to display his learning.
Again Ben gazed, but the field was full of early flowers; and, if a long pencil had not pointed to a dandelion close by, he would have been lost.
"Here you are, sir," he answered with a chuckle and Thorny took his turn at being astonished now.
"How the dickens did you know that ?" "Try it again, and may be you'll find out," laughed Ben.
Diving hap-hazard into his book, Thorny demanded a "trifolium pratense." The clever pencil pointed, and Ben brought a red clover, mightily enjoying the joke, and thinking that their kind of botany wasn't bad fun.
"Look here, no fooling!" and Thorny sat up to investigate the matter, so quickly that his sister had not time to sober down.

"Ah, I've caught you! Not fair to tell, Celia.

Now, Ben, you've got to learn all about this buttercup, to pay for cheating." "Werry good, sir; bring on your rhinoceriouses," answered Ben, who couldn't help imitating his old friend the clown when he felt particularly jolly.
"Sit there and write what I tell you," ordered Thorny, with all the severity of a strict schoolmaster.

Perching himself on the mossy stump, Ben obediently floundered through the following analysis, with constant help in the spelling, and much private wonder what would come of it:-- "Phaenogamous.

Exogenous.