"And a little flower shall lead him." :-)"Oh, dear!" sighed Johnny, as he threw himself down on the ground one Saturday morning, all out of breath after his long run to the woods, where he had gone to get rid of the very sight and sound of teachers and books. "How I wish I could camp out here for the summer, like that anemone over there; that is, as long as there is any blue sky."
"Is the sky blue?" asked a little voice near him, very plaintively.
It was the Anemone.
"Why, don't you see how blue it is?" answered Johnny.
"How can I see, when I have n't any eyes?"
"That's so! you haven't any eyes; I never thought of that. Still, it seems to me you have rather a nice thing of it out here, anyhow; plenty of cool air and shade, with just enough sunshine."
"Yes," said the the little flower, wistfully; "it 's very nice, all except the bears."
"Bears!" exclaimed Johnny. "Why, you 're not afraid of a bear, are you? Bears don't care anything about anemones; no bear would run after you!"
"No; he would n't run after me, but he might run over me, you see; and that 's why I 'm afraid of them."
"But there are n't any bears here," said Johnny.
"How do you know that?" asked the Anemone.
"Why, I 've read about bears in books, and my teachers have told me something about them, too. There are grizzly bears out in the Rocky mountains, and polar bears up in the Arctic regions; but there are n't any bears at all in these woods."
"Dear me!" said the Anemone. "How splendid it must be to be able to know things! If you only knew what a load you have taken off my mind! So your teacher told you that; do you suppose I could hire a teacher to come out here and teach me?"
"I don't know," answered Johnny, doubtfully. "I guess not; teachers have to be paid, you know, and you don't earn any money, I suppose?"
"No," said the little flower, ruefully. "I can 't earn money; can you?"
"Yes, indeed! perfect heaps of it, shoveling snow and weeding the garden, and such things. But then I don't have to pay the teacher with that; Papa pays the teacher. I spend my money for candy and things. When I 'm a man, I expect to earn money enough to have everything I want."
"Dear me! what would I not give for such a chance as yours," said the Anemone. "I should like so much to learn things; you don't happen to know any teacher who would come and teach me for nothing, do you?"
"No," said Johnny, decidedly, "I don't. But I 'll tell you what I could do: I could bring some of the boys out here to tell you things."
"And do they know a great deal?"
"Well, we don't know as much as the teachers, of course; but we know more,"—Johnny hesitated a moment, trying to put the matter as delicately as possible,—"we know more than some people."
"And do you learn something every day?"
"Yes," said Johnny, after a moment's reflection; "we learn something every day."
"Then by and by you 'll know a lot?"
"Yes. indeed," asserted Johnny, more confidently this time. "When I 'm a man, I shall probably know all there is to be known."
"Dear me! What a chance! But when will you bring the boys?"
"Next Saturday, perhaps."
"Next Saturday!" exclaimed the little flower in dismay. "Why I sha'n't be alive next Saturday! I only live twenty-four hours, you know. How many hours do you live?"
"Hours!" exclaimed Johnny. "Why, I hope to live seventy-five years, and may be I shall live longer than that."
"Seventy-five years to live to learn things in!—and a teacher too! Oh, what a chance!"
"Well, it's evident you ought to begin your education at once," said Johnny, with decision. "As you have n't much time to spare, don't you think,"— again Johnny hesitated a moment; then he asked, a little doubtfully:
"Would you mind being picked?"
"Would I mind being picked!" shrieked the Anemone. "How would you like to have your head snapped off?"
"Not very well; but you seemed so anxious to learn–"
"That's very true," said the Anemone thoughtfully. "It's worth a good deal of a sacrifice. It was such a relief to know about the bears! and I suppose, if you could n't learn things any other way, you would be willing to have a leg or an arm cut off, would n't you?"
"Well," said Johnny, evading the question, "I was just thinking that if you did n't mind being picked, I could take you home to Mother; and just by hearing her talk, you would learn heaps of things."
"Mother? " asked the Anemone, lifting her little face eagerly. "What is a mother?"
"Well, I declare!" exclaimed Johnny. "Not to know what a mother is! I'm sure I don't know how to tell you about her; you have to have a mother to know what she is. She 's a dreadful thing not to have. I suppose you 're like Topsy, and just 'growed'?"
"Is Topsy your sister?"
"No, indeed; Topsy is a story," explained Johnny.
"But how do you know stories?"
"Why, I read them," said Johnny.
"And do your teachers teach you to read?"
"Yes," said Johnny, reluctantly, conscious that he was confessing a great deal of indebtedness to the very teachers and books he had "just hated" so, that very morning.
"I think you may pick me," said the little Anemone softly. "It may hurt me some, but I would rather know something before I die. Please pick me right away, and take me home to your mother!"
"I 'll tell you what I could do," suggested Johnny. "I could take you up, roots and all, without picking you off the stem, and carry you home in my basket. And if any one can make you live a little longer than twenty-four hours, Mother can."
"O you clear, lovely boy!" said the grateful little Anemone, as Johnny lifted it carefully into his basket, roots and all. "Now you can talk to me all the way, and tell me things; for, as you say, I have n't any time to spare."
"Well," said Johnny as he trudged along, "I 'm sure I did n't think I should ever be a teacher. Do you know,"—he paused again, in his endeavor to speak very politely,—"do you know—anything?"
"Not much," said the little flower humbly. "I only know what you 've told me this morning."
"Well, that 's something to begin with," said Johnny, encouragingly. "I don't always know what my teacher has told me in the morning. Dear me! that reminds me; he did tell me this morning that if I were going to the woods to-day, he wished I would bring him an anemone for his collection. Now, if you like, you can be pressed and put into a book, and have your name written under you, and be shown to lots and lots of children; and then, don't you see, you 'll be a teacher, too; and, between you and me, it's a great deal better fun to teach than to learn!"
"Is it?" said the Anemone, eagerly. "I like learning so much, that it doesn't seem as if I could like teaching any better. But I think I shall let you press me and put me in the book!"
And when Johnny brought his teacher the Anemone, and told him about it, the teacher smiled, and wrote on the black-board as the day's motto for all the children to learn by heart: "Remember, nothing is so insignificant but it may teach something, and no one so wise but he may learn something!"
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