"In the air, how happy my stem will be! I shall learn a great deal, and
see beautiful things every day. O how I long for that time to come!"
"What you say is very strange," said the red stone. "Here I have been in
this same place for many years, and I have not grown at all. I have no
root; I have no stem; or, if I have, they never move upward nor
downward, as you say. Are you sure you are not mistaken?"
"Why, of course I'm not mistaken," cried the bean. "I feel within myself
that I can grow; and I have absorbed so much moisture that I must soon
begin."
Just then the bean's coat split from end to end, and for one or two
minutes neither the stone nor the bean spoke. The stone was astonished,
and the bean was a little frightened. However, he soon recovered his
courage.
"There!" said he, showing the two packages he had been carrying; "these
are my seed-leaves. In them is the food on which I intend to live when I
begin growing.
"When my stem is strong enough to do without them, they will wither away.
My coat is all worn-out, too. I shall not need it any longer. Look
inside the seed-leaves, and you will see the germ.
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