212 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



that they plant some seeds and care for some pets. Various 

 pets were suggested by the children, but they finally agreed on 

 bantam chickens and white rabbits. 



The gardener made us two small pens of wire netting with a 

 hinged board on top. When finished they looked rather airy 

 especially as the sky was threatening rain. This troubled the 

 children and they thought of many devices for the protection of 

 the pets. They suggested a new house, a cloth to spread on top, 

 a shingled roof, but G — solved the problem by saying that he 

 knew where there were some boxes in which holes could be cut 

 for doors. His plan was adopted and the boxes provided. 



The chickens were donated by the parents of one of the children. 

 They were promptly named "Dolly Gray' ' and"Speckle. ' ' Speckle 

 is a rooster but he submitted tamely to be named after the hen in 

 the kindergarten story. But now difficulties arose. They had 

 nothing for the chickens to eat, they couldn't find any rabbits 

 and they "didn't know what rabbits eat anyhow." 



The next day the children brought a goodly store of information 

 to school. They knew all about the food of chickens and rabbits 

 and one boy brought some parsley seed to raise some parsley for 

 food. This was the very point I was waiting for. We now planted 

 the flower seed previously gathered and set a pot aside for the 

 rabbits, after planting parsley seed in it, many of the flower 

 seeds were not the best choice for fall planting but the children 

 wished to plant those they had gathered themselves. Among 

 them were poppy, candy -tuft, sweet-peas and nasturtium seed, 

 and it may be well to state here that the last named proved to 

 be the most satisfactory in all ways. 



While the seeds were coming up the problem of furnishing food 

 for the pets was considered. The children proposed to bring 

 food from home and for a few days "Dolly Gray" and "Speckle" 

 fared sumptuously. Two children invested their pocket money 

 for wheat and a fancy tin pan for. a drinking vessel. 



It was not long, however, until a day came when no food was 

 brought. They asked how they would feel by noon if their 

 mamas forgot to get their breakfast. They thought that they 

 would feel rather hungry but were apparently not much cast 

 down by their forgetfulness. On the way to the pen we came 

 quite by accident upon some wheat scattered on the ground as 

 though it beenhad spilled. Five children without a word dropped 



