“It’s a wonderful story,” Bouncing Bet spoke in her sweet voice. “You see, the plant food soup is carried up into the larger roots, into the sapwood of the tree, into the branches and into the leaves; and the leaves——”
“Give us shade!” Eleanor did not realize that she had interrupted.
“They do,” smiled Bet. “But that is not their work.”
“Oh, do leaves work?” Eleanor was surprised.
“They work very, very hard,” Bet replied. “They do such wonderful work that a leaf has been called a leaf factory, or a leaf-mill.”
“You think that leaves do not resemble the factories or mills you have seen,” went on the fairy. “It is not in appearance that they resemble mills and factories, but in the work they do; for they manufacture starch. I suppose there is really no starch in the whole world that leaves have not made.”
“Oh,” exclaimed Mary Frances; “even the starch in our dresses—is that made by leaves?”
“Yes,” Bet smiled, “even that; and the starch in your bread and the——”