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“Thank you! I suppose I shall never be very strong or able to do much; so I AM rather like a fern, and do live in a conservatory all winter, as I can’t go out a great deal. An idle thing, Becky!” and Emily sighed, for she was born frail, and even her tenderly guarded life could not give her the vigor of other girls. But the sigh changed to a smile as she added,–

“If I am like the fern, you are like your own laurel,–strong, rosy, and able to grow anywhere. I want to carry a few roots home, and see if they won’t grow in my garden. Then you will have me, and I you. I only hope YOUR plant will do as well as mine does here.”

“It won’t! ever so many folks have taken roots away, but they never thrive in gardens as they do on the hills where they belong. So I tell ’em to leave the dear bushes alone, and come up here and enjoy ’em in their own place. You might keep a plant of it in your hot-house, and it would blow I dare say; but it would never be half so lovely as my acres of them, and I guess it would only make you sad, seeing it so far from home, and pale and pining,” answered Becky, with her eyes on the green slopes where the mountain-laurel braved the wintry snow, and came out fresh and early in the spring.

“Then I’ll let it alone till I come next summer. But don’t you take any of the fern into the house in the cold weather? I should think it would grow in your sunny windows,” said Emily, pleased by the fancy that it resembled herself.

“I tried it, but it needs a damp place, and our cold nights kill it. No, it won’t grow in our old house; but I cover it with leaves, and the little green sprouts come up as hearty as can be out here. The shade, the spring, the shelter of the rock, keep it alive, you see, so it’s no use trying to move it.”

Both sat silent for a few minutes, as their hands moved briskly and they thought of their different lots. An inquisitive ray of sunshine peeped in at them, touching Becky’s hair till it shone like red gold. The same ray dazzled Emily’s eyes; she put up her hand to pull her hat-brim lower, and touched the little curls on her forehead. This recalled her pet grievance, and made her say impatiently, as she pushed the thick short locks under her net,–

“My hair is SUCH a plague! I don’t know what I am to do when I go into society by-and-by. This crop is so unbecoming, and I can’t match my hair anywhere, it is such a peculiar shade of golden-auburn.”

“It’s a pretty color, and I think the curls much nicer than a boughten switch,” said Becky, quite unconscious that her own luxuriant locks were of the true Titian red, and would be much admired by artistic eyes.

“I don’t! I shall send to Paris to match it, and then wear a braid round my head as you do sometimes. I suppose it will cost a fortune, but I WON’T have a strong-minded crop. A friend of mine got a lovely golden switch for fifty dollars.”

“My patience! do folks pay like that for false hair?” asked Becky, amazed.

“Yes, indeed. White hair costs a hundred, I believe, if it is long. Why, you could get ever so much for yours if you ever wanted to sell it. I’ll take part of it, for in a little while mine will be as dark, and I’d like to wear your hair, Becky.”

“Don’t believe Mother would let me. She is very proud of our red heads. If I ever do cut it, you shall have some. I may be hard up and glad to sell it perhaps. My sakes! I smell the cake burning!” and off flew Becky to forget the chat in her work.