AND HIS PLANT SCHOOL 5 



"One morning, as his attention was directed to an 

 especially beautiful blossom, a humming bird, on busy 

 wing, began sipping its nectar from the fuchsia. In an 

 instant the baby hands had caught and were holding the 

 bird, while in a distressed tone he was crying, ' Birdie eat 

 flower ! Birdie eat flower ! ' ' 



When it was explained that the bird was not injuring 

 the flower but only taking the food that Nature had placed 

 there for its use, Luther quickly allowed it to go unharmed, 

 and ever afterward the visits of birds, bees, and butter- 

 flies became to him an added pleasure. 



As months and years passed, flowers were more and 

 more his companions. In early spring he saw the bulbs, 

 which had lain all winter apparently lifeless in the cellar, 

 placed in the ground; then he watched the first tiny green 

 shoots as they appeared above the surface. With eager 

 eye he followed their growth each day until iris, golden 

 daffodil, and scarlet tulip gladdened his heart. 



He learned that the tiny seeds of phlox, heliotrope, 

 snapdragons, petunias, musk plants, pinks, and other ten- 

 der annuals* were often sown in boxes and carefully 

 shielded from storm and cold until the soil had been 

 warmed by the summer sun and the little plant had become 

 strong enough to be transplanted into the ground, while the 

 seeds of the hardier sweet peas, candytuft, foxgloves, four- 

 o'clocks, and pansies were early planted in the open garden. 



* Annual living only a year. 



