962 



Rural School Leaflet 



4. Near which end of the potato do you find the greater number of eyes? 



5. On which side of the eye is the " eyebrow "? 



6. To what does the " eyebrow " correspond? 



BLOSSOMS* 



L. H. Bailey 



(for older boys and girls) 



There are two parts to the common day — 

 the performance of the day, and the back- 

 ground of the day. Many of us are so sub- 

 "' merged in the work we do and in the pride of 

 life that the real day slips by unnoted and 

 unknown. But there are some who part the 

 hours now and then and let the background 

 show through. There are others who keep the 

 sentiments alive as an undertone and who hang 

 all the hours of work on a golden cord, con- 

 necting everything and losing none: theirs is 

 the full life; their backgrounds are never for- 

 gotten; and the backgrounds are the realities. 

 The joy of flowers is of the backgrounds. It 

 lies deeper even than the colors, the fair fra- 

 grances, and the graces of shape. It is the joy 

 of things growing because they must, of the 

 essence of winds woven into a thousand forms, 

 of a prophetic earth, and of wonderful 

 delicateness in part and substance. The 

 appeal is the deeper because we cannot analyze 

 it, nor measure it by money, nor contain it in 

 anything that we make with our hands. It is 

 too fragile for analysis. 



I think that this fragile brotherhood with 

 the earth must always have been a powerful 

 bond with men and an infinite resomv to them, 

 although I catch little of the feeling >£ it in 

 the ancient literatures. I think that men must always have respc led to 

 the wild rose and to the tenderness of the grass. Certainly we now 

 that men very early began to assemble blossoms about their hc.aes, 

 and to pass on the seeds from friend to friend. 



Centuries ago great elaborate books were written about flowers, and 

 the kinds even then were many and some of the forms were marvelous, 



* Printed by courtesy of The Magazine FLOWERS. 



