"'Look and see,' said the Sassafras.
"They looked and saw. Among its simple ordinary leaves were several with
two lobes--one on each side. 'Will these do?'
"'Do?' said the nymphs. 'We said we had two thumbs, but we meant one on
each hand, stupid. Do? We should say not!'
"The Sassafras was mortified. 'Well,' he said, 'that's all I can manage
this season. I'm sorry not to have understood you young ladies and your
needs. Come back again next spring.'
"It was a long time to wait, but they waited. Next May----"
Amy, now unworried by George Pearson, began to get the thread of the thing.
Foster was sure the thread would run through. Hortense was still alert for
ulterior meanings. Poor Cope, however, had no ambition to spin a double
thread,--a single one was all he was equal to.
"Next May the nymphs, after nursing their thumbs for a year----"
Hortense frowned.
"----came back again; and there, among the plain leaves and the double-
lobed leaves, were several fresh bright, smooth ones with a single lobe
well to one side,--the very thing for mittens. And------"
"Yes, he has done it," Foster acknowledged.
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