Isabel.  Lily does, always.

L. And how much can you allow for Lily’s good packing, in guessing what will go into the trunk?

Isabel.  Oh!  I bring twice as much as the trunk holds.  Lily always gets everything in.

Lily.  Ah! but, Isey, if you only knew what a time it takes! and since you’ve had those great hard buttons on your frocks, I can’t do anything with them.  Buttons won’t go anywhere, you know.

L. Yes, Lily, it would be well if she only knew what a time it takes; and I wish any of us knew what a time crystallization takes, for that is consummately fine packing.  The particles of the rock are thrown down, just as Isabel brings her things—­in a heap; and innumerable Lilies, not of the valley, but of the rock, come to pack them.  But it takes such a time!

However, the best—­out and out the best—­way of understanding the thing, is to crystallize yourselves.

The audience.  Ourselves!

L. Yes; not merely as you did the other day, carelessly on the schoolroom forms; but carefully and finely, out in the playground.  You can play at crystallization there as much as you please.

Kathleen and Jessie.  Oh! how?—­how?

L. First, you must put yourselves together, as close as you can, in the middle of the grass, and form, for first practice, any figure you like.

Jessie.  Any dancing figure, do you mean?

L. No; I mean a square, or a cross, or a diamond.  Any figure you like, standing close together.  You had better outline it first on the turf, with sticks, or pebbles, so as to see that it is rightly drawn; then get into it and enlarge or diminish it at one side, till you are all quite in it, and no empty space left.

Dora.  Crinoline and all?

L. The crinoline may stand eventually for rough crystalline surface, unless you pin it in; and then you may make a polished crystal of yourselves.

Lily.  Oh, we’ll pin it in—­we’ll pin it in!

L. Then, when you are all in the figure, let every one note her place, and who is next her on each side; and let the outsiders count how many places they stand from the corners.

Kathleen.  Yes, yes,—­and then?

L. Then you must scatter all over the playground—­right over it from side to side, and end to end; and put yourselves all at equal distances from each other, everywhere.  You needn’t mind doing it very accurately, but so as to be nearly equidistant; not less than about three yards apart from each other, on every side.

Jessie.  We can easily cut pieces of string of equal length, to hold.  And then?  L. Then, at a given signal, let everybody walk, at the same rate, towards the outlined figure in the middle.  You had better sing as you walk; that will keep you in good time.  And as you close in towards it, let each take her place, and the next comers fit themselves in beside the first ones, till you are all in the figure again.