“I’ve studied quite a little about seed-babies,” replied Mary Frances. “I love the little things dearly.”
“Good,” cried Bet; “you’ll love them even more after you’ve heard what Jack is going to tell you.”
“Do water babies grow in the same way as other plant babies?” asked Mary Frances.
“In quite the same way,” replied Jack. “I’m going to show you how the roots of plants take up the food needed, and how the leaves help make that food right for their digestion.”
“I thought that plants breathed with their leaves.”
“Well, they do breathe with their leaves too, but they also breathe with their stem surface; or, in trees, with the surface of the trunk. In fact, they breathe all over.”
“I know,” said Eleanor, “that I’ve been taught to wash the leaves of house plants in order that the leaves might get air.”
“Very wise, indeed,” said Jack. “Air is very, very important to the leaves, as you will see when I have told you about their way of growing.”
Just then he took a tiny silver bugle from his shoulder and blew a long note.
Four little elves appeared. They were dressed in light brown and dark brown leaves. On their heads, each wore a cap of a different color. One was red; one was yellow; one, tan; and one, pink. They all stood “attention,” looking at Jack.
“Bring in the magic tree,” said Jack, and off ran the elves.
In a moment they returned, half carrying and half dragging a plant which looked like a tiny tree. It was growing in a glass tub, which, although small, seemed a heavy burden for the little fellows.
“Oh!” Mary Frances sprang up. “Oh, please, let me help,” she begged as she stooped down to take it.
“Better not, better not,” warned Jack. “That is a fairy tub and will go to pieces if you touch it.”
By that time the little elves had it in place, and they smiled their thanks to Mary Frances as they wiped the perspiration from their foreheads with tiny handkerchiefs made of colored Autumn leaves.
“That will do, attendants,” he said. “Thank you,” and the little elves ran away.
“We have here,” he continued, “a fairy view of the way in which plants grow. Come, Bet!”
With that, both the little fairies sprang to the top of the tub, and a wonderful thing happened.
The tub and the tree began to grow so fast that before you could count three, they were as high as the girls’ knees, and before you could count seven, the top of the tree was even with Eleanor’s head.