3^4 



Junior Naturalist Monthly. 



A NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS 



'Twas night 



And all life 



Dreaming in repose was still ; 

 The fields, the wood, the mountain rill. 

 The beasts, 



And many tinted birds, 

 The fishes in the lakes, 

 The herds. 



The golden stars sailed on. 



And sorrow, care, , 



And sin had gone. 



— Jac Lowell.* 



Some evening this De- 

 cember, a little while before 

 mother says it is bedtime, 

 raise the curtain and look 

 out at the stars. I want 

 yoti also to see the moon- 

 light at least once during 

 the month. Perhaps you 

 will wrap up warmly and 

 stand out-of-doors a few 

 minutes tmder the starry 

 sky. Ask father to go with 

 you and to tell you some ot 



Fig. 3. — An arrangement for measuring the growth the things that he knows 



of plants. Who can make one like it? 1 i. ^i . 1^-1 



. ^ about the stars and the 



moon and the great, still night. 



How beautiful the fields look in the moonlight, so white and so 

 shadowy and so qttiet ! How far can yoti see from your window on a 

 moonlight night? How far can you see by starlight? Notice the trees 

 in the night. Look at the stars through the branches. Watch the shadows 

 of the trees on the snow. 



What sounds can you hear at night? 



What little animals of the field are out? Look in the morning and 

 see wdiether you find tracks that any of them have made in the snow. 



HOW FAST DO PLANTS GROW? 



Herbert Whetzel 



Of course you know that plants grow. That is how trees become 



taller and strawberry runners longer. That is how the morning glory 



climbs the string that you tie up at the window for it. r>ut do you know 



* From Birds and Nature, by courtesy of The Mumford Publishing Company. 



