This world would be a much more interesting place ... although it IS very interesting anyhow ... if people spoke out their real thoughts . '' `` It would be too hot to hold some folks , '' quoted Jane sagely . `` I suppose it might be , but that would be their own faults for thinking nasty things . Anyhow , we can tell all our thoughts today because we are going to have nothing but beautiful thoughts . Everybody can say just what comes into her head . THAT is conversation . Here 's a little path I never saw before . Let 's explore it . '' The path was a winding one , so narrow that the girls walked in single file and even then the fir boughs brushed their faces . Under the firs were velvety cushions of moss , and further on , where the trees were smaller and fewer , the ground was rich in a variety of green growing things . `` What a lot of elephant 's ears , '' exclaimed Diana . `` I 'm going to pick a big bunch , they 're so pretty . '' `` How did such graceful feathery things ever come to have such a dreadful name ? '' asked Priscilla . `` Because the person who first named them either had no imagination at all or else far too much , '' said Anne , `` Oh , girls , look at that ! '' `` That '' was a shallow woodland pool in the center of a little open glade where the path ended . Later on in the season it would be dried up and its place filled with a rank growth of ferns ; but now it was a glimmering placid sheet , round as a saucer and clear as crystal . A ring of slender young birches encircled it and little ferns fringed its margin . `` HOW sweet ! '' said Jane .
`` Let us dance around it like wood-nymphs , '' cried XXXXX , dropping her basket and extending her hands .
Anne Diana Jane Priscilla ferns file firs first glade saucer