80 The Nature-Study Idea 



children are not conscious that they are receiv- 

 ing any impression from these plants, neverthe- 

 less the very presence of them has an influence 

 that will be felt in later life, even as the presence 

 of good literature and furniture and the associa- 

 tion of refined surroundings has influence. 



I dropped a seed into the earth. It 

 grew, and the plant was mine. 



It was a wonderful thing, this plant of 

 mine. I did not know its name, and the 

 plant did not bloom. All I know is that 

 I planted something apparently as lifeless 

 as a grain of sand and there came forth a 

 green and living thing unlike the seed, 

 unlike the soil in which it stood, unlike the 

 air into which it grew. No one could tell 

 me why it grew, nor how. It had secrets 

 all its own, secrets that bafHe the wisest 

 men; yet this plant was my friend. It 

 faded when I withheld the light, it wilted 

 when I neglected to give it water, it 

 flourished when I supplied its simple needs. 

 One week I went away on a vacation, and 



