SEED; SAIL BOALS 
N your way to school these fall days, often 
you notice certain white, silky things 
floating lazily through the air. Sometimes you 
catch one of these little objects, and blow it 
away again with a message to a friend. Or per- 
haps you wish upon it. At least, this is what I 
did as a child. Life in those days was full of 
these mysterious “wishes.’’ A white horse, a 
hay cart, the first star, a wandering thistle 
down, —each promised the possible granting 
of one’s most secret wish. 
That the thistle down comes from the thistle 
plant, you know. But not all the silky things 
that look like fairy sailboats are thistle down, 
for many plants beside the thistle let loose these 
tiny air ships. 
Have you ever wondered where they come from, 
what they are doing? Or do they seem to you so lazy, 
so drifting, so aimless, that you doubt if they are going 
anywhere in particular, or have really anything to do? 
But by this time you have learned that plants have 
better reasons for their actions than you had dreamed 
before you began to pay them some aitention. You 
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