[Illustration: Multiple Cells]

"What do you mean by a single cell?"

"Just a tiny mass of jelly-like stuff that is called protoplasm. The
cells grow larger and divide until there are a lot of them. That's the
way plants and animals grow."

"If each is as small as those I saw under the microscope there must be
billions in me!" and Ethel Blue stretched her arms to their widest
extent and threw her head upwards as far as her neck would allow.

"I guess there are, young woman," and Helen went off to hang her snowy
coat where it would dry before she put it in the closet.

"There'th a thnow flake that lookth like a plant!" cried Dicky who had
slipped open the window wide enough to capture an especially large
feather.

"It really does!" exclaimed Ethel Blue, who was nearest to her little
cousin and caught a glimpse of the picture through the glass before the
snow melted.

"Did it have 'root, stem and leaves'?" asked Dorothy. "That's what I
always was taught made a plant--root, stem and leaves. Would Helen call
a cell that you couldn't see a plant?"

"Yes," came a faint answer from the hall. "If it's living and isn't an
animal it's a vegetable--though way down in the lower forms it's next to
impossible to tell one from the other. There isn't any rule that doesn't