216 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



Two boxes containing plants stood near our flower pots. These 

 had probably served their purpose and were abandoned as they 

 were almost buried in pine needles which had dropped from the 

 trees. One day two boys carefully cleaned the pine needles from 

 the boxes and loosened the earth around the plants "so they could 

 grow better' ' they explained. This was entirely without suggestion. 

 I had not noticed these plants. 



By this time the desire for gardens had become very strong 

 and although I wished very much to avoid planting gardens until 

 we had first "caught our hare" it was getting late in the season 

 and in order that other plans might not miscarry, we set about 

 making the gardens. Two beds three by eight feet were marked 

 off. The children did their very best in digging, hoeing and raking 

 but they needed and obtained some help here. They had pre- 

 viously gathered lettuce seed from the school garden. One plot 

 was planted with these while the other was called the farm, and 

 was planted to wheat for the chickens. In a few days the gardens 

 were nice and green. The children were interested in them but 

 were not so active in caring for them as their own potted plants. 

 They were much quieter for some reason. They loved to stand 

 and watch them, often stooping to examine the plants. They 

 soon learned to distinguish the weeds but no effort was made to 

 destroy them. The effects of sun and moisture were noted and 

 some of them rightly interpreted though the very brightest girl 

 interpreted the fact that the plant leaned toward the sun as some- 

 thing to be provided against for I found her protecting her plant 

 from the sun by placing a thick board in front of it. This was 

 long after the rest of the class had grasped the idea of turning their 

 plants every day to make them grow straight. 



One day while the plants in the garden were still very small 

 footprints were discovered in the middle of the beds. This 

 aroused great indignation in the children and I dreaded to let 

 them work out this problem without any suggestion from me. 

 The footprints annoyed them seriously and they thought of many 

 ways to prevent any repetition of them. At last one boy suggested 

 a sign telling intruders to keep away. This was eagerly seized 

 upon as a good plan and just here was shown a very keen desire 

 on the part of the children to write signs them.selves which was of 

 course the correct thing for them to do. The wish to write arose 

 first by the children planning how they could make the signs, 



