43 
You have not forgotten, I hope, why these fruits are 
so anxious to be eaten? You remember that when their 
seeds become ripe, and ready to make new plants, then 
they put on bright colors that say for them, ‘‘Come 
and eat us, for our little seeds want to get out of their 
prison !”’ 
Once upon a time these seeds did not find their cozy 
seed cases a prison. So once upon a time the baby 
robins were content to stay safe in their nest. And 
once upon a time all the playground you needed was 
a little corner behind your mother’s chair. But seeds, 
like birds and babies, outgrow their surroundings, and 
need more room. 
Here is a tall shrub with bright-colored leaves, and 
clusters of dark red fruit that grow high above our 
heads (Fig. 33). It looks something like certain mate- 
rials used in fancywork. This shrub is called the 
sumac; and if you pick and pull apart one of its 
fruit clusters, you find that it is made up of a 
quantity of seeds that are covered with little 
red hairs. There is nothing soft and juicy 
about the fruit of the sumac. Whether it is 
ever used as food by the birds, I do not 
know. I wish some child would make it his 
business to find out about this. Some of you 
are sure to live near a clump of sumacs. By 
Fic: 33 
watching them closely for a few weeks, you 
ought to discover if any birds feed upon their fruit. 
If you do make any such discovery, I hope you will 
write a letter telling me of it; and then, if another edition 
of this book is published, I shall be able to tell other chil- 
