34 THREE KINGDOMS. 



water ; count the daisy flowers, and may they prove 

 oracles of joy ; blow off the dandelion's plumes to see 

 if mother wants you ; test your love for butter by the 

 glimmer of the buttercup beneath your chins ; find 

 pretty pebbles by the brook, and keep them bright in 

 glasses of water ; gather brilliant autumn leaves, and 

 press them for the days when their colors will be in 

 the sky ; study the beautiful crystals of the snow, 

 lightly falling on your sleeve as you plod to school ; 

 learn to love the music of the rain, and the singing of 

 the wind, and the moaning of the sea. You may not 

 discover many wonderful things or things that you 

 will recognize as wonderful. But if the boys and girls 

 in all the different places visited by The Swiss Cross 

 were to tell each other about the common things in 

 each one's own vicinity, there would be wonder enough, 

 I am sure. 



Yet you may find something altogether new. Did 

 not little Maggie Edward find a new fish for her 

 father ? What ? Never heard of Thomas Edward 

 the dear old shoemaker who use to make ' uppers ' all 

 day, and then lie all night in a hole in a sand-bank, 

 with his head and gun out, watching for ' beasts ? ' 

 In that case, you would do well to read the book 

 called < The Scotch Naturalist,' by Samuel Smiles. 



Nature must be studied out-of-doors. Natural ob- 

 jects must be studied from the specimens themselves. 

 The rocks must be broken open, the flowers must be 

 studied as they grow, and animals must be watched as 

 they live freely in their own strange homes. Quaint 

 old Bernardin de St. Pierre, author of ' Paul and Vir- 

 ginia,' says : 



" Botanists mislead us. They must have magnify- 

 ing-glasses and scales in order to class the trees of a 

 forest ! To show me the character of a flower, it is 

 presented to me dry, discolored, and spread out on 



