“But, mamma, how can flowers marry! And how can a bee possibly marry them?”
This was the right question to ask first, even if it was a kind of double-headed one, because this marriage was the first 20 of the wonders that had amazed her, and the answer to it would lead logically to the fee and the honey eaten by people, and these questions would be easier to make plain after the first one was answered.
III
THE HUSBANDS AND WIVES OF PLANTS
Mrs. Edson drew a long breath because she knew the time had arrived when, for her little daughter’s sake, she must give her the information which would mark her growth from girlhood into young womanhood, and the fact disturbed her, for she did not want to lose her little girl, even in exchange for the lovely young lady whom she knew would take that dear little girl’s place. But it must be done, and, thankful that she had studied the subject enough to know how to do it in a nice and plain way, she began: 22
“In the first place, dear,” she said, “you must know that the flowers are the husbands and wives of plants, made so by nature. They are in their way as truly married as Mr. and Mrs. Jones are in their way, or as your papa and I are. This marriage is a law of nature, invented to carry on the race, whatever that race may be, whether it is that of mankind, or plants, or animals, or birds, or even fishes. For not only do men and flowers marry, everything in nature does the same—turtles, frogs, robins, elephants, everything!”
Elsie wished very much at this point to ask if her mother had ever seen an elephant’s wife, thinking that she must look rather funny, much different, to say the least, from a flower’s wife, but as the answer came to her at once, 23 without asking the question, she said nothing. Of course an elephant’s wife must be another elephant, as the flower’s wife was another flower. But it was all very singular, and the sparkle of her eyes as she looked into her mother’s face showed her interest in what might be coming. Mrs. Edson went on:
“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 24 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.”