finished our breakfases it will be right wide out. You come up and
see too, will you?"

And sure enough when breakfast was really done, she took his hand in
hers and led him up and into the room he had shunned so long.

"I don't think it will be full out until to-morrow," he decided; but
Jessie couldn't help thinking he had made a mistake, and many times
that day she climbed the stairs to see, and was quite troubled when
at last she had to go to bed, for fear the bud would open while her
eyes were shut.

"I think it is a very slow rose," she said, shaking her head sagely
as her granny was undressing her. "I am sure it _ought_ to have been
out by this time."

And then, after all her watching, the bud burst into full bloom
before Jessie was awake the next morning. When she opened her eyes
and saw it she felt quite vexed. "I wish I had put you back in a
dark corner," she said to it, "then you wouldn't have opened till I
was awake."

"The little maid is a born gardener," chuckled her grandfather, when
he was told of it; "'tis the folk that talks to their flowers that
gets the best out of them."

"If talking'll do it, her rose-bush will be covered thick, then,"
laughed her grandmother.

"I wish I could send some of my roses to mother," sighed Jessie;