They walked on in silence for some time, then Ella's face began to shine. 'Just think, Willie,' exclaimed she, eagerly, 'if I bury my doll, it may turn into a real baby.'
'Yes,' assented the boy, 'and if I bury my box of tin soldiers, before long I shall have a regiment of strong men to fight the Russians with.'
'And—who knows?—if Mother were to give us her purse, we might make a whole tree of sovereigns grow! How happy Mother would be if she could have money without Father tiring himself so much to gain it!'
A moment's pause to enjoy the thought of such happiness, and then Willie remarked, a little doubtfully, 'Ella, don't you think that if it were so easy to make live soldiers and trees of gold grow up, people would have thought of it before now? I don't understand why nobody has ever tried.'
Ella wrinkled her brow, and looked very serious indeed. The remark was not to be slighted, and yet she felt quite sure that no real objection could be made to the conclusion at which they had arrived. Indeed, her brow soon cleared again, and, turning to her brother with a triumphant air, she exclaimed, 'Now I know! Of course, if we have ideas that other people never think of, it means we are geniuses! Most people never think of the plainest things till some genius has done so, and then it all seems so easy. I remember what Miss Allan said when she told us the story of Christopher Columbus. Any one could have taken a ship and sailed away to Africa—— '
'America,' murmured Willie, timidly.
'Well, America, then; it's all the same,' went on Ella, with an impatient shrug of her shoulder. 'But nobody did. There were no geniuses except Columbus, and he thought, "People are stupid not to go to America, but I will show them the way." What did he go for, Willie? Do you remember?'
'Cousin Jack said he went to find the egg conjurors play with, but I think he was joking.'
'Well, anyhow, he was a genius, and that's why we read about him in our school-books. Wouldn't it be fun, Willie, if children were to read about us at school?'
Willie looked doubtful. 'I don't think they'd like us,' he answered. 'People in school-books are often not nice.'