196 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [10:5— May, 1914 



"Good thinking, Mary, the seeds may be floated on the surface 

 of streams or may be carried along during heayy rains." 



The color moimted into the girl's cheeks, and a pleased, sur- 

 prised look passed across her face. Suddenly, Josephine Lacy be- 

 came conscious that it was the first time that she had ever spoken 

 words of praise to Mary Hogan. 



The incident set her thinking. She felt sure that she had gained 

 an insight into the girl's character that she had never had before. 

 Mary Hogan wanted to be noticed. In the past the girl had gained 

 a greater notoriety by not getting her lessons and strenuously oppos- 

 ing her teacher than she could gain in any other way. "Hereafter, 

 I see where I shall be blind to all her meanness, and I shall see 

 and praise in her only the things that are desirable. And Jose- 

 phine Lacy kept her resolution. 



Nearly every day during the early fall and winter, the fifth 

 grade had a lesson on weeds. Sometimes they brought the weeds 

 into the school and then again they went out to the vacant lot 

 for them. Miss Lacy made a practice of writing on the black- 

 board the things she wished the children to observe, and the 

 questions she wished them to think about. It was Mary Hogan, 

 herself, who had made her think of trying this plan. A few days 

 after they had discussed how the seeds of Curled Dock might 

 be carried from place to place, the girl announced that she had 

 found that they might be carried in another way. She had been 

 out to the vacant lot after a rain; afterwards, while cleaning her 

 shoes, she had fotmd a weed seed sticking in the mud which she 

 had carried home upon them. 



It was along about this time that Miss Lacy was no longer 

 annoyed by seeing cartoons of herself chalked on the sidewalk 

 or at finding unpleasant notes on her desk; bits of candy, apples 

 and grapes appeared there instead. 



With the aid of the bulletins she received from the State Board 

 of Agriculture, she identified twenty-five weeds that grew in the 

 vacant lot. Each day she brought a new weed into the school 

 room for study, much as they had studied the Curled Dock. 



One day. Miss Lacy thought to measure the extent of the 

 children's interest. She wrote the names of six plants that grew 

 most abimdantly in the vacant lot, and told them that she wished 

 to know how many seeds the largest plant of each kind produced. 

 She chose six children who stood the highest in the work to take 



