"W-e-l-l!" said Elsie slowly, "if that isn't strange!" She sat a moment thinking of this miracle, her mother watching her lovingly and considering what she ought to say next, for she had a great secret to tell her little daughter, a secret so great and important that much wise thought was required to study out just how to make it plain to a girl as young as Elsie. Besides, she was interested to know what Elsie herself would say next, for she was bringing her up to think logically, so that she might know always how to ask the right question at the right time, instead of the wrong one. And she was very much pleased when Elsie, instead of putting the last question first, as some little girls would have done, put the right one first by saying: "But, mamma, how _can_ flowers marry! And how can a bee possibly marry them?" This was the right question to ask first, even if it was a kind of double-headed one, because this marriage was the first of the wonders that had amazed her, and the answer to it would lead logically to the fee and the honey eaten by people, and these questions would be easier to make plain after the first one was answered. III THE HUSBANDS AND WIVES OF PLANTS Mrs. Edson drew a long breath because she knew the time had arrived when, for her little daughter's sake, she must give her the information which would mark her growth from girlhood into young womanhood, and the fact disturbed her, for she did not want to lose her little girl, even in exchange for the lovely young lady whom she knew would take that dear little girl's place. But it must be done, and, thankful that she had studied the subject enough to know how to do it in a nice and plain way, she began: "In the first place, dear," she said, "you must know that the flowers are the husbands and wives of plants, made so by nature. They are in their way as truly married as Mr. and Mrs. Jones are in their way, or as your papa and I are. This marriage is a law of nature, invented to carry on the race, whatever that race may be, whether it is that of mankind, or plants, or animals, or birds, or even fishes. For not only do men and flowers marry, everything in nature does the same--turtles, frogs, robins, elephants, everything!" Elsie wished very much at this point to ask if her mother had ever seen an elephant's wife, thinking that she must look rather funny, much different, to say the least, from a flower's wife, but as the answer came to her at once, without asking the question, she said nothing. Of course an elephant's wife must be another elephant, as the flower's wife was another flower. But it was all very singular, and the sparkle of her eyes as she looked into her mother's face showed her interest in what might be coming. Mrs. Edson went on: