So Mary made a long, narrow bed at the front of the house, and then
she prepared to plant her flowers.

"If you scatter the seeds," said her mother, "the flower-bed will look
very pretty."

Now this was what Mary was about to do; but since her mother advised
it, she tried to think of another way, for, as I said, she was
contrary at times. And in the end she planted the dingle-bells all in
one straight row, and the cockle-shells in another straight row the
length of the bed, and she finished by planting the cowslips in
another long row at the back.

Her mother smiled, but said nothing; and now, as the days passed by,
Mary watered and tended her garden with great care; and when the
flowers began to sprout she plucked all the weeds that grew among
them, and so in the mild spring weather the plants grew finely.

"When they have grown up big and strong," said Mary one morning, as
she weeded the bed, "and when they have budded and blossomed and faded
away again, then papa and my brothers will come home. And I shall call
the cockle-shells papa, for they are the biggest and strongest; and
the dingle-bells shall be brother Hobart, and the cowslips brother
Robart. And now I feel as if the flowers were really my dear ones, and
I must be very careful that they come to no harm!"

She was filled with joy when one morning she ran out to her
flower-garden after breakfast and found the dingle-bells and cowslips
were actually blossoming, while even the cockle-shells were showing
their white buds. They looked rather comical, all standing in stiff,