The walk in itself offered nothing remarkable. Fields where the grass was very green and fast growing; other fields that were rocky and broken, and good for little except the sheep, and sometimes rose into bare ridges and heights where spare savins were mingled with a variety of deciduous trees; such was the ground the two went over this morning. This morning, however, glorified everything; the fields looked soft, the moss and lichens on the rocks were moist and fresh coloured, grey and green and brown; the buds and young leafage of the trees were of every lovely hue and shade that young vegetation can take; and here and there Esther found a wild flower. When she found one, it was very apt to be taken up by the roots with her little trowel, and bestowed in her basket for careful transport home; and on the so endangered beauties in her basket Esther looked down from time to time with fond and delighted eyes. 'Are you going for cresses, Christopher?' 'No, Miss Esther, not at this time. Sarah has set her mind that she must have boiled greens for dinner; and her will must be done. And here is the article--not boiled yet, however.' He stopped and stooped, and with a sharp knife cut a bunch of stout-looking leaves growing in the grass; then made a step to another bunch, a yard off, and then to another. 'What are they, Christopher?' 'Just dandelions, Miss Esther. _Leontodon taraxacum_.' 'Dandelions! But the flowers are not out yet.' 'No, Miss Esther. If they was out, Sarah might whistle for her greens.' 'Why? You could tell better where they are.' 'They wouldn't be worth the finding, though.' Christopher went on busily cutting. He did not seem to need the yellow blossoms to guide him. 'How can you be sure, Christopher, that you are always getting the right ones?' 'Know the look o' their faces, Miss Esther.' 'The _flowers_ are their faces,' said the little girl. Christopher laughed a little. 'Then what are the leaves?' said he. 'I don't know. The whole of them together show the _form_ of the plant.' 'Well, Miss Esther, wouldn't you know your father, the colonel, as far off as you could see him, just by his figger?' 'But I know papa so well.' 'Not better than I know the _Leontodon_. See, Miss Esther, look at these runcinate leaves.' 'Runcinate?' 'Toothed-pinnatifid. That's what it gets its name from; lion's tooth. _Leontodon_ comes from two Greek words which mean a lion and a tooth. See--there ain't another leaf like that in the hull meadow.' 'There are a great many kinds of leaves!' said Esther musingly. 'Like men's human figgers,' said the gardener sagely. 'Ain't no two on 'em just alike.'