"Yes. They are all descriptive--'_pointed_,' '_acute_,' '_obtuse_,'

'_truncate_,' '_notched_,' and so on," answered Helen. "Did you notice a minute ago that I spoke of the 'leaflet' of a horse-chestnut leaf?

What's the difference between a 'leaflet' and a 'leaf'?"

"To judge by what you said, a leaflet must be a part of a leaf. One of the five fingers of the horse-chestnut leaf is a leaflet," Della reasoned out in answer.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Obtuse Truncated Notched]

"Can you think of any other leaves that have leaflets?"

"A locust?"

"A rose?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: Pinnate Pinnate, tendrils Locust Leaf Sweet Pea Leaf]

"A sweetpea?"

The latter answer-question came from Roger and produced a laugh.

"All those are right. The leaves that are made up of leaflets are called '_compound_' leaves, and the ones that aren't compound are '_simple_.'"

"Most leaves are simple," decided Ethel Brown.

"There are more simple than compound," agreed Helen. "As you recall them do you see any resemblance between the shape of the horse-chestnut leaf and the shape of the rose leaf and anything else we've been talking about this afternoon?"

"Helen is just naturally headed for the teaching profession!" exclaimed James in an undertone.

Helen flushed.

"I do seem to be asking about a million questions, don't I?" she responded good naturedly.

"The rose leaf is feather-shaped and the horse-chestnut is palm-shaped,"

Ethel Blue thought aloud, frowning delicately as she spoke. "They're like those different kinds of veining."

"That's it exactly," commended her cousin. "Those leaves are '_pinnately compound_' and '_palmately compound_' according as their leaflets are arranged like a feather or like the palm of your hand. When you begin to notice the edges of leaves you see that there is about every degree of cutting between the margin that is quite smooth and the margin that is so deeply cut that it is almost a compound leaf. It is never a real compound leaf, though, unless the leaflets are truly separate and all belong on one common stalk."

"My lily of the valley leaf has a perfectly smooth edge," said Ethel Blue.

"That is called '_entire_.' This elm leaf of mine has a '_serrate_' edge with the teeth pointing forward like the teeth of a saw. When they point outward like the spines of a holly leaf they are '_dentate_-'toothed. The border of a nasturtium leaf is '_crenate_' or scalloped. Most honeysuckles have a '_wavy_' margin. When there are sharp, deep notches such as there are on the upper leaves of the field daisy, the edge is called '_cut_.'"

"This oak leaf is 'cut,' then."

"When the cuts are as deep as those the leaf is '_cleft_.' When they go about half way to the midrib, as in the hepatica, it is '_lobed_' and when they almost reach the midrib as they do in the poppy it is '_parted_.'"

[Ill.u.s.tration: Dentate Wavy]

"Which makes me think our ways must part if James and I are to get home in time for dinner," said Margaret.

"There's our werwolf down in the field again," exclaimed Dorothy, peering through the bushes toward the meadow where a man was stooping and standing, examining what he took up from the ground.

"Let's go through the field and see what he's doing," exclaimed Roger.

"He's been here so many times he must have some purpose."

But when they pa.s.sed him he was merely looking at a flower through a small magnifying gla.s.s. He said "Good-afternoon" to them, and they saw as they looked back, that he kept on with his bending and rising and examination.

"He's like us, students of botany," laughed Ethel Blue. "We ought to have asked him to Helen's cla.s.s this afternoon."

"I don't like his looks," Dorothy decided. "He makes me uncomfortable. I wish he wouldn't come here."

Roger turned back to take another look and shook his head thoughtfully.

"Me neither," he remarked concisely, and then added as if to take the thoughts of the girls off the subject, "Here's a wild strawberry plant for your indoor strawberry bed, Ethel Brown," and launched into the recitation of an anonymous poem he had recently found.

"The moon is up, the moon is up!

The larks begin to fly, And, like a drowsy b.u.t.tercup, Dark Phoebus skims the sky, The elephant with cheerful voice, Sings blithely on the spray; The bats and beetles all rejoice, Then let me, too, be gay."

CHAPTER X

THE U.S.C. AND THE COMMUNITY

Roger's interest in gardening had extended far beyond fertilizers and sweetpeas. It was not long after the discussion in which the Mortons'

garden had been planned on paper that he happened to mention to the master of the high school, Mr. Wheeler, what the Club was intending to do. Mr. Wheeler had learned to value the enthusiasm and persistency of the U.S.C. members and it did not take him long to decide that he wanted their a.s.sistance in putting through a piece of work that would be both pleasant and profitable for the whole community.

"It seems queer that here in Rosemont where we are on the very edge of the country there should be any people who do not have gardens," he said to Roger.

"There are, though," responded Roger. "I was walking down by the station the other day where those shanties are that the mill hands live in and I noticed that not one of them had s.p.a.ce for more than a plant or two and they seemed to be so discouraged at the prospect that even the plant or two wasn't there."

"Yet all the children that live in those houses go to our public schools. Now my idea is that we should have a community garden, planted and taken care of by the school children."

"Bully!" exclaimed Roger enthusiastically. "Where are you going to get your land?"

"That's the question. It ought to be somewhere near the graded school, and there isn't any ploughed land about there. The only vacant land there is is that cheerful spot that used to be the dump."

"Isn't that horrible! One corner of it is right behind the house where my aunt Louise lives. Fortunately there's a thick hedge that shuts it off."

"Still it's there, and I imagine she'd be glad enough to have it made into a pleasant sight instead of an eyesore."

"You mean that the dump might be made into the garden?"

"If we can get people like Mrs. Smith who are personally affected by it, and others who have the benefit of the community at heart to contribute toward clearing off the ground and having it fertilized I believe that would be the right place."

"You can count on Aunt Louise, I know. She'd be glad to help. Anybody would. Why it would turn that terrible looking spot into almost a park!"

"The children would prepare the gardens once the soil was put into something like fair condition, but the first work on that lot is too heavy even for the larger boys."