“Peach,” Rose called, and out stepped a beautiful peach, with a pink cap, trimmed with green leaves.
“Strawberry,” called Rose, and surely enough, out came a red ripe strawberry with a white cap trimmed with green leaves.
“Blackberry,” called the little Rose lady once more, and before the word left her mouth, a big blackberry came tumbling in, on his head a white cap, trimmed with green.
“Oh, pardon me,” said Blackberry, picking himself up. “I was afraid I’d be late.”
Rose smiled and motioned the blackberry into place beside the strawberry.
Once again Rose called a name.
“Apple,” she called, and roly-poly, “head-over-tin-cups,” came a round rosy-cheeked apple into their midst.
“Excuse me,” puffed Apple. “Please excuse my manners, Cousin Rose, but I am so fat that hurrying gets me all out of breath,” and he fell in line.
“That will do,” interrupted Jack-in-the-Pulpit, “that will do for the Rose family; we will now—”
“Excuse me,” interrupted Mary Frances, “but may I ask—if all these are members of the Rose family?”