"How beautiful! how beautiful they are! and some of them so fragrant!" exclaimed Elsie, rapidly filling a pretty basket she carried in her hand. "How good God is to give us so many lovely things!"
"Yes," returned Rosie, "it seems a pity to pluck them from their stems and make them wither and die; but there is such a profusion that what we take can hardly be missed."
"And it's honoring our graves to scatter flowers over them: isn't it,
Aunt Rosie?" Eddie asked.
"Why do you say our graves? just as if you were already buried there," laughed Herbert.
"Come," said Rosie, "I think we have enough now."
"O Aunt Rosie, down in that little dell yonder they are still thicker than here, and more beautiful, I think," exclaimed Elsie.
"But we have enough now; your basket is full. We'll go to that dell as we come back, and gather some to take home to our mammas."
"Oh yes, that will be best," Elsie said, with cheerful acquiescence.
"I shall go now and get some worthy to honor the dead," said Meta, starting off in the direction of the dell.
"Meta likes to show her independence," said Rosie, smiling; "we won't wait for her."