"Martha! Martha!" some one called from the doorway, and Martha jumped up. "Come back to-morrow and hear my story," said the Tiger Lily; "and mine," said the Tulip; "and mine," called out the Jonquil. Martha promised that she would and ran toward the house. The next day as soon as Martha found herself alone she ran into the garden, for she was curious to hear the promised stories. The Jonquil spoke first. "My story," it said, with dignity, "will be historical. I am a descendant from the great Narcissus family, and the Narcissus, as you know, is a very beautiful flower; it grows in wild profusion among the stony places along the great Mediterranean and eastward to China. All that you may have heard, but do you know why Narcissus loves to be near the water?" Martha said she did not. "I will tell you," replied the Jonquil. "Ages and ages ago Narcissus was the son of a river god. He was extremely vain of his extraordinary beauty, which he beheld for the first time in the water. He sought out all the pools in the woods and would spend hours gazing at his reflection, and at last he fell in love with his own image. "Narcissus could neither eat nor sleep, so fascinated did he become with his reflection. He would put his lips near to the water to kiss the lips he saw, and plunge his arms into it to embrace the form he loved, which, of course, fled at his touch, and then returned after a moment to mock him. "'Why cannot you love me?' he would say to the image; 'the Nymphs have loved me, and I can see love in your eyes'; which, of course, he did, for he did not know he was gazing at his own reflection. "At last he pined away and died, and in the place of his body was found a beautiful flower, with soft white petals, nodding to its reflection in the water. "The Daffodils are also my cousins," the Jonquil explained, "and descend from the beautiful Narcissus." "That is a very pretty story," said Martha, "and the fate of Narcissus should teach all vain people a lesson." The Tiger Lily told her story next. "Mine is not a love story," she said; "it is about something I saw in far-off China before I bloomed here. "In that land little girls are not so happy as they are here because the boys are the pride of the family. "One day a poor beggar who was faint from hunger and thirst lay down close beside where I bloomed. He groaned aloud in his misery, and a little girl who was passing heard him. She came to him and gave him water from a near-by stream and bathed his face. When he was refreshed he asked, 'Who are you, and how did you happen to be here?' "'I am only a miserable daughter on her way to the mission,' she replied. 'My father is very poor and can provide only for his sons. If I can reach the mission they will take me in and I shall be taught many things.'