‘Chalk?’ Dora asked.

‘No, they never would be so silly!  Let us go and see.’

2.  Up they got, and away they went.  They found that the white things lying about on the grass were bits of turnip.

Harry picked one up and looked at it.  It was only a round rind:  all the inside had been eaten out.

3.  He took it home with him to show to his mother, and she said: 

’I saw some bits like this that were shooting out green leaves when spring came.  They had been lying out on the ground in the winter, yet there was so much life in them that they could grow again.  But, come, wash your hands:  dinner is ready, and I have something to tell you.  We are going to have turnips for dinner!’

[Illustration:  He took it home with him to show to his mother.]

4.  When Harry had his helping of turnips he said: 

‘Now I am a sheep!’

‘No,’ said Dora, ’the sheep don’t boil their turnips, or mash them with nice butter.’

5.  ‘But raw turnip is very nice,’ said her father.  ’I have often eaten one out in the fields.  I am not at all sorry for the sheep.’

6.  ‘I have heard,’ said mother, ’that, when corn was very dear, people had to use turnips in making bread.  They say the bread looked good, and kept well.  The water was first pressed out of the turnips, and then they were mixed with wheat-meal.’

7.  ‘I wish you would make some, mother,’ said Dora, ’just for fun, to see what it is like.’

‘I will—­some day.’

8.  ‘What did you mean, mother,’ Harry asked, ‘about water in turnips?’

‘There is a great deal of water in turnips,’ said mother.

9.  ‘Turnips are nearly all water,’ said father.

‘Now, father, you must be joking,’ cried Harry.

‘No, I am not.  Am I, mother?’

Mother smiled, and said ‘No.’

GREEN PEAS.

PART 1.

peas flow’-ers ten’-drils un-rolled’ watched thought pur’-pose but’-ter-flies half count’-ed true flow’-er with’-er stayed shin’-y touched

1.  Dora was alone in the garden.  She had played about till she was tired, when she found herself close to the bed of peas.  She had seen her father sow the peas, and now there were tall plants with leaves and flowers and green tendrils.

2.  Dora unrolled one or two of these tendrils, and then watched them roll up again.  She thought: 

’How funny it is of the plant to put these out on purpose to take hold of the sticks!  And how pretty the flowers are!  They look like little white butterflies.  I will pull one open.’

3.  She picked a flower, and sat down with it on the grass.  Inside of it she found something long and green.  This she opened, and saw a row of tiny green balls.

[Illustration:  Pea-flower.]