Zbc 1bope ot l!)ear9 to Come 45 



audience by taking from a hat an entire wardrobe, 

 or from a modest little box a flowing gown, a trail- 

 ing banner. Nature performs these marvels for us 

 bona fide — not with tricky pretence. Here is a round 

 mustard seed, from which a tall herb shall spring ; 

 from this other winged atom will come the broad, 

 golden disk of the dandelion, where butterflies may 

 sit to drink honey, or the tiny golden finch may 

 rest and sway, as a fairy bird upon a fairy flower. 



Jewels may be of great value, but their intrinsic 

 worth is far less than that of seeds. All the jewels 

 of the world might be utterly destroj^ed, and no 

 more ever be found, yet the world could go on with as 

 much health and happiness as at present. If all 

 the seeds now upon the earth should be suddenly 

 destroyed, and no more formed, in less than a year 

 every animal upon the earth would be dead of star- 

 vation ; within two years scarcely a living thing 

 would be found upon our glol^e. These seeds at 

 which we glance so carelessly are the hope of the 

 world's life. 



Let us go out to the woods to some sunny southern 

 slope where maples grow. Turning over the light 

 soft earth near the tree roots we shall find the maple 

 seeds that ripened last autumn, and are now germi- 

 nating. The seeds of the maple are in pairs, which 

 are called keys. They look more like little tan- 



