328 AFTERMATH 



though it was very light, has left nothing else in 

 this low place. Oh, look at the line of Milk- 

 weeds with the pods pointing this way and that! 

 The sun and wind are opening them, and you can 

 see the silk puff out and sail away with the seeds, 

 hanging like cars of a tiny balloon;" and Flower Hat 

 picked a stalk and held it up. The brown seeds 

 seen through the split pod fitted over one another 

 like fish scales, but even as we looked, the opening 

 grew wider and the dried scales slipped apart, 

 hanging a moment by the silk -like filaments which, 

 in another second, feathered out and floated away 

 to perpetuate the race. 



"How beautiful!" she added, "and yet it is 

 only common Silkweed. And over yonder is a 

 Virgin's Bower Vine gone to seed, that, as the 

 wind stirs it, looks like a wreath of leaf smoke 

 pufHng over the brush; and there are still a few 

 leaves and berries on the Virginia Creeper. But I 

 do not see your last flower. Where and what is it?" 



"That would be telling a day's pleasure in one 

 word," I replied. "I must answer as Time o' 

 Year does, 'Come and see!' and then take you 

 to this last flower in its haunt." 



Before noon we turned from the Hemlocks into 



