The group of adder's tongues. 



How the Plants Wake Up from Winter Sleep 



Frederick V. Coville 



Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture 



Once upon a time there were two little boys who Hved upon a 

 farm that was their very own. It was a stony, hilly, half-wild, 

 woods}' farm, with a brook and a spring; and a bog where the 

 sparkling sundew set its baited trap. The farm ran down on one 

 side to a lake where the boys built castles in the sand, or frightened 

 the darting pickerel through the lily pads, or played water tag 

 with schools of curious minnows. There was a dark pine woods 

 where the brook went over mossy stones and the trout lay watching 

 in the pools, and farther down a thicket of alders where the wood- 

 cock hunted over the soft wet ground and left the mud full of 

 holes, as he prodded with his long bill for worms. There were 

 great red oaks, where the grey squirrels grew fat in autumn, and 

 dark hemlocks in which the red squirrels chittered and scolded. 

 There were berries to be picked, wild strawberries, and blueberries, 



143 



