"We will begin with plants, because they came first into the world as living beings, and all other living beings not only had their origin in plants but live by aid of them to this day. From the plants grew animals, and from animals grew men and women and little girls. It took a long, long time for all this to come about, so long that the human mind fails to grasp or comprehend it; and at first, when one hears of it for the first time, it seems wholly impossible and unbelievable. But science has proved it to be true, and even shows the exact way in which the various changes were made. Many, if not all, the steps by which we mounted from the condition of a tiny speck of jelly-plant, a speck no bigger than the point of a pin, to become human beings are still in existence and are frequently observed by scientists. With a microscope anybody may see them. So we know that the theory of evolution, as it is called, is a true one. It is also an exceedingly wonderful and beautiful truth, full of secrets and surprises of the most interesting and delightful kind, as I shall show. Now let's go and examine the buttercup that the bee just married to the second buttercup." Elsie jumped up with a little gurgle of joy and ran ahead of her mother to the flower. This was better than playing "secret" with Rosie and Eva and the other girls, for their secrets were not real ones, they were just made up and they did not amount to very much after all, but this was a real one, kept up in earnest with the bees and flowers. And now she was to be let into it! Mrs. Edson bent over the bright yellow blossom, taking it gently in her fingers to prevent it from nodding so briskly in the breeze that they should be unable to examine it closely. "You see, dear," she said, pointing with a twig to the different parts as she named them, "right here, in the exact center of the blossom, is a bunch of green growing in the form of an oval, shaped somewhat like an egg with the smaller end upward." "Yes, oh, yes!" Elsie answered eagerly. "What is it, mamma?" "Broadly speaking we will call it the ovary. I am not going to confuse you by giving you too many hard words at first, words like corolla, carpel, style, stigma, and the like. I shall name only two parts of the flower for you to remember just now, because only two are really necessary to be named at this point. So the name of this one is--what?" "Ovary!" answered Elsie quickly. "Yes, ovary! It is called so because it contains ovules, which are tiny seeds or eggs. That is the mother part of the plant." "The mother!" Elsie queried. "Why, mamma, is there a father too?"