Molly pushed her dingy garlands away,ashamed of such poor attempts beside these perfect works of nature,and Jill stretched out her hand involuntarily,as she said,forgetting her exotics,"Give me just one to smell of,it is so woodsy and delicious.""Here you are,plenty for all.Real Pilgrim Fathers,right from Plymouth.One of our fellows lives there,and I told him to bring me a good lot;so he did,and you can do what you like with them,"explained Ed,passing round bunches and shaking the rest in a mossy pile upon the table.
"Ed always gets ahead of us in doing the right thing at the right time.Hope you've got some first-class baskets ready for him,"said Gus,refreshing the Washingtonian nose with a pink blossom or two.
"Not much danger of his being forgotten,"answered Molly;and everyone laughed,for Ed was much beloved by all the girls,and his door-steps always bloomed like a flower-bed on May eve.
"Now we must fly round and fill up.Come,boys,sort out the green and hand us the flowers as we want them.Then we must direct them,and,by the time that is done,you can go and leave them,"said Jill,setting all to work.
"Ed must choose his baskets first.These are ours;but any of those you can have";and Molly pointed to a detachment of gay baskets,set apart from those already partly filled.
Ed chose a blue one,and Merry filled it with the rosiest may-flowers,knowing that it was to hang on Mabel's door-handle.
The others did the same,and the pretty work went on,with much fun,till all were filled,and ready for the names or notes.
"Let us have poetry,as we can't get wild flowers.That will be rather fine,"proposed Jill,who liked jingles.
All had had some practice at the game parties,and pencils went briskly for a few minutes,while silence reigned,as the poets racked their brains for rhymes,and stared at the blooming array before them for inspiration.
"Oh,dear!I can't find a word to rhyme to 'geranium,'"sighed Molly,pulling her braid,as if to pump the well of her fancy dry.
"Cranium,"said Frank,who was getting on bravely with "Annette"and "violet."
"That is elegant!"and Molly scribbled away in great glee,for her poems were always funny ones.
"How do you spell anemoly--the wild flower,I mean?"asked Jill,who was trying to compose a very appropriate piece for her best basket,and found it easier to feel love and gratitude than to put them into verse.
"Anemone;do spell it properly,or you'll get laughed at,"answered Gus,wildly struggling to make his lines express great ardor,without being "too spoony,"as he expressed it.
"No,I shouldn't.This person never laughs at other persons' mistakes,as some persons do,"replied Jill,with dignity.
Jack was desperately chewing his pencil,for he could not get on at all;but Ed had evidently prepared his poem,for his paper was half full already,and Merry was smiling as she wrote a friendly line or two for Ralph's basket,as she feared he would be forgotten,and knew he loved kindness even more than he did beauty.
"Now let's read them,"proposed Molly,who loved to laugh even at herself.
The boys politely declined,and scrambled their notes into the chosen baskets in great haste;but the girls were less bashful.Jill was invited to begin,and gave her little piece,with the pink hyacinth basket before her,to illustrate her poem.
"TO MY LADY
"There are no flowers in the fields,No green leaves on the tree,No columbines,no violets,No sweet anemone.
So I have gathered from my pots All that I have to fill The basket that I hang to-night,With heaps of love from Jill.""That's perfectly sweet!Mine isn't;but I meant it to be funny,"said Molly,as if there could be any doubt about the following ditty:
"Dear Grif,Here is a whiff Of beautiful spring flowers;The big red rose Is for your nose,As toward the sky it towers.