dare say you'd have got me one if I _had_ asked for it, you are such an
obliging chap."

"Of course I would if I could. Shouldn't be surprised if you did some
day, you want such funny things," answered Ben, appeased by the
compliment.

"I'll try the amanuensis first. It's only some one to write for me; I
get so tired doing it without a table. You write well enough, and it
will be good for you to know something about botany. I intend to teach
you, Ben," said Thorny, as if conferring a great favor.

"It looks pretty hard," muttered Ben, with a doleful glance at the book
laid open upon a strew of torn leaves and flowers.

"No, it isn't; it's regularly jolly, and you'd be no end of a help if
you only knew a little. Now suppose I say, 'Bring me a "ranunculus
bulbosus,"' how would you know what I wanted?" demanded Thorny, waving
his microscope with a learned air.

"Shouldn't."

"There are quantities of them all round us, and I want to analyze one.
See if you can't guess."

Ben stared vaguely from earth to sky, and was about to give it up, when
a buttercup fell at his feet, and he caught sight of Miss Celia smiling
at him from behind her brother, who did not see the flower.

"S'pose you mean this? _I_ don't call 'em rhinocerus bulburses, so I