If she spurns him, she tears it up by the roots and throws it out in the street to wither, and I believe breaks the pot; but if she likes him, she takes it in and keeps it green, to show that he lives in her memory." A shout of laughter from Rob and Phil had made her turn to stare at them uneasily.

"What are you laughing at ?" she asked, innocently.

"I _did_ read it.

I can show you the paper it is in, and I thought it was a right bright way for a person to find out what he wanted to know without asking." It was very evident that she hadn't the remotest idea she had said anything personal, and her ignorance of the cause of their mirth made her speech all the funnier.

Doctor Bradford laughed, too, as he said with a formal bow: "I hope you will take the suggestion to heart, Miss Betty, and let my memory and the fern-ball grow green together." Then, Mary, realizing what she had said when it was too late to unsay it, clapped her hands over her mouth and groaned.