214 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



The time was still afar off when we were to have rabbits but 

 this did not daunt the children. They talked of them constantly, 

 and really helped all they knew to find some. Had I wished I 

 might, of course, have come to the rescue but I thought it best to 

 go on with the plant growing for a time at least. 



From the moment that the seeds were planted in the flower 

 pots and the children's names written on them the interest never 

 flagged. When the time for this work came, the children ran 

 instantly to their own pots, clasped them with both hands and 

 gazed into them with anxious eyes. When they found the seeds 

 sprouting they were full of delight and in a very short time they 

 were interested in finding other sprouting seeds. They liked to 

 give them to me and have me hold them while I recited: 

 "In the heart of a seed 

 Buried deep, so deep 

 A dear little plant 

 Lay fast asleep 

 Wake said the sunshine 

 And creep to the light," etc. 



One morning A — dug up a large plant in a box near by. I was 

 told of it and went to investigate. He said *T dug it up carefully 

 I did't hurt it I just wanted to see if there was a seed at the root." 



The children were uneasy when it rained lest the rain should 

 wash their names from the pot and they would not know their own. 



One day shortly after the plants had begun to grow we met a 

 teacher who told us that she had put her pigeons temporarily in our 

 rabbit pen. I expected nothing but that those beauties with their 

 burnished necks, soft gray plumage and pretty pink feet would take 

 the whole of the children's attention for that period, but quite to 

 my surprise only three stopped to look at them until after they had 

 examined and talked about their plants and even then the pigeons 

 were quite secondary in interest to those tiny, insignificant sprouts. 



The birds were shortly after this transferred to a pen built 

 for them in a comer which the children must pass every day to get 

 to their plants and chickens. They ran past, however, with 

 scarcely a look at the pigeons. This surprised me very much as 

 did also the fact that some chickens were hatched near our pens 

 and though the children enjoyed watching them they did not 

 neglect their own work in the least. They did, however, show 

 the most intense desire for "Dolly Gray" to hatch some chickens 



