Madam Dandelion would speak first, I suppose. You know she 

 never hesitates to go where she pleases and remains as long as she 

 likes no matter how rudely she may be treated, so I am sure she 

 would not be at all diffident in conversation. She would probably 

 tell us that she had left her home last year in a balloon which her 

 mother had given her. How she must have enjoyed sailing away, 

 away over field and meadow, until she reached a sunny place where 

 she would have plenty of room to grow. I would like to hear her 

 tell how happy she felt when the warm spring days came, and she 

 arose out of the earth clothed in a gay yellow gown, bringing 

 brightness and cheer into the hearts of little children. Many grown 

 folks, as well as the young people, greet her with a smile each 

 spring, and once Lowell wrote a beautiful poem about this bright 

 little blossom, in which he said : 



"My childhood's earliest thoughts are linked with thee; 

 The sight of thee calls back the robin's song, 

 Who from the dark old tree 

 Beside the door, sang clearly all day long. 

 And I, secure in childish piety, 

 Listened as if I heard an angel sing 

 With news from Heaven, which he did bring 

 Fresh every day to my untainted ears, 

 When birds and flowers and I were hapoy peers." 



Yes, she is a pert little thing and is sometimes very annoying to 

 the gardener, but no one would banish her altogether. Will you go 

 out into the fields and find Madam Dandelion, so that you can learn 

 from her how she sends her children abroad in balloons ? 



I wonder how many boys and girls know what sedges are ? They 

 look like coarse grasses and generally grow near ponds and in marshy 

 places. The seeds of most sedges travel by water to reach new 

 homes. Whenever I see them gliding along I feel like saying, 

 " Where are you going, little akenes?" An akene, you know, is a 

 small, dry, one-seeded fruit which does not break open when it 

 ripens. The real seed is inside an outer covering and when there is 

 a space filled with air between the outer covering and the seed, it 

 can sail on quiet waters or drift with the current of running streams. 

 Will you try and find as man 3^ sedge akeens as you can and send 



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