139 
And you girls will take no end of trouble if you 
happen to be sewing for your dolls, or playing at 
cooking over the kitchen stove, or doing something to 
ce 
which you give the name “play” instead of ‘“ work.” 
I only ask for just as much patience in your study 
of plants; and I think I can safely promise you that 
plants will prove delightful playthings long after you 
have put aside the games which please you now. 
So we must begin to talk about some of the things 
which you are not likely to see now with your own 
eyes, but which, when possible, I will show you by 
-means of pictures, and which, when you are older, some 
of you may see with the help of a microscope. 
Every living thing is made up of one or more little 
objects called ‘cells.’ | 
Usually a cell may be likened to a tiny bag which 
holds a bit of that material which is the most wonderful 
thing in the whole world, for this is the material which 
has /2fe. 
Occasionally a cell is nothing but a naked bit of this 
wonderful substance, for it is not always held in a 
tiny bag. 
This picture (Fig. 135) shows you a naked plant cell, 
much magnified, that swims about in 
the water by means of the two long 
hairs which grow from one end of the 
speck of life-giving material. Zo 
Phe next: (picture.(Pie- 136). shows Cas, 
you a seed cut across, and so magnified 
FIG. 135 
that you can see plainly its many cells. 
In the middle portion of the seed the cells are six- 
