"Why, 'the Princess Prue,' of course."
"Do seeds from the same bush make the different roses?" asked Davy.
"Yes, and from the same pod."
"But are the seeds just alike?"
"They are so far as anybody can see, but when they come to grow and
bloom, one may be a white rose, another pink, and another red. Some may
be dwarfs in size, and others giants. All may have the same sun, the
same water, the same air, and the same soil. It is only the tiny little
difference which we cannot see that makes the great difference in the
plant, by and by."
Davy was thinking very hard. Soon he said:
"And where do sweet and sour and all the pepper and mustard and
horseradish tastes come from? The air and the water don't taste. I
never tasted much dirt, but I don't believe any of it would bite like a
red pepper."
[Illustration: "GARDENERS OFTEN TAKE A ROSE OF ONE KIND AND SHAKE IT
GENTLY OVER A ROSE OF ANOTHER KIND"]
The Chief Gardener laughed.
"No, Davy, I don't believe it would," he said. "And I think the sun is
the only one who could answer your question. It is a chemistry which no
one of this world has been able to explain. Chemistry is a magic which
you will understand by and by, and you will know then that the sun is
the greatest of all chemists. Suppose we go down into your gardens and
see what he is doing there."
[Illustration: "SOMETIMES THE GARDENER TAKES UP THE POLLEN ON A SOFT
BRUSH AND LAYS IT GENTLY ON THE STIGMA OF ANOTHER ROSE"]
They all went down the little steps that led to the Chief Gardener's
enclosure, where Prue and Davy had their gardens, side by side with
his. There just as they entered was a great mass of morning-glory vines
that every morning were covered with a splendor of purple, and pink,
and white, and blue, and just beyond these was a mass of dianthus
pinks of every hue and shade. Bachelor-buttons, petunias, and verbenas
were all there, too, besides Prue's sweet-pease by the fence, and her
alyssum and mignonette. Then came Davy's things, all fresh and growing,
and beyond these the Chief Gardener had ever so many things, from beets
to beans, from parsley to parsnips, from carrots to corn. In one small
corner by the strawberry-bed there grew a little bed of pepper plants,
and near-by a row of tomatoes. The Chief Gardener stopped in the midst
of all these things.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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