Perching himself on the mossy stump, Ben obediently floundered through the following analysis, with constant help in the spelling and much private wonder what would come of it: 

“Phaenogamous.  Exogenous.  Angiosperm.  Polypetalous.  Stamens, more than ten.  Stamens on the receptacle.  Pistils, more than one and separate.  Leaves without stipules.  Crowfoot family.  Genus ranunculus.  Botanical name, Ranunculus bulbosus.”

“Jerusalem, what a flower!  Pistols and crows’ feet, and Polly put the kettles on, and Angy sperms and all the rest of ’em!  If that’s your botany I wont take any more, thank you,” said Ben, as he paused as hot and red as if he had been running a race.

“Yes, you will; you’ll learn that all by heart, and then I shall give you a dandelion to do.  You’ll like that, because it means dent de lion or lion’s teeth, and I’ll show them to you through my glass.  You’ve no idea how interesting it is, and what heaps of pretty things you’ll see,” answered Thorny, who had already discovered how charming the study was, and had found great satisfaction in it since he had been forbidden more active pleasures.

“What’s the good of it, any way?” asked Ben, who would rather have been set to mowing the big field than to the task before him.

“It tells all about it in my book here—­’Gray’s Botany for Young People.’  But I can tell you what use it is to us,” continued Thorny, crossing his legs in the air and preparing to argue the matter, comfortably lying flat on his back. “We are a Scientific Exploration Society, and we must keep an account of all the plants, animals, minerals and so on, as we come across them.  Then suppose we get lost and have to hunt for food, how are we to know what is safe and what isn’t?  Come, now, do you know the difference between a toad-stool and a mushroom?”

“No, I don’t.”

“Then I’ll teach you some day.  There is sweet flag and poisonous flag, and all sorts of berries and things, and you’d better look out when you are in the woods or you’ll touch ivy and dogwood, and have a horrid time if you don’t know your botany.”

“Thorny learned much of his by sad experience and you will be wise to take his advice,” said Miss Celia, recalling her brother’s various mishaps before the new fancy came on.

“Didn’t I have a time of it, though, when I had to go round for a week with plantain leaves and cream stuck all over my face!  Just picked some pretty red dogwood, Ben, and then I was a regular guy, with a face like a lobster and my eyes swelled out of sight.  Come along and learn right away, and never get into scrapes like most fellows.”