374 NATURE STUDY. 



If a ripe pod, which has opened, is hung in the schoolroom 

 two or three days, it will begin to discharge its seeds, so 

 that the children can see just how the plant-mother sends 

 her seeds out into the world. They should also watch the 

 process out of doors. The teacher cannot understand or 

 appreciate the ways of Mother Milkweed until she has taken 

 her book some Saturday, and spent an hour or two in a milk- 

 weed patch at sailing-time, 



Now let us see how the babies are wrapped in their 

 cradle. Compare constantly with the babies at home. 

 Note how the blanket is wrapped all around the babies, 

 with every crack closed up ; how it opens at the right time, 

 not too early, not too late, and at the right place, where 

 there aro no babies to feel the first cool drafts, and away 

 from the stem, where the babies can first see out and get 

 out. How soft and thick it is, the finest kind of a " com- 

 fortable " ! How very smooth and soft is the part that 

 comes against the wee babies ! Perhaps some child can 

 tell about the very soft flannel that mamma wraps next to 

 the skin of the little baby at home. The outside wrappings 

 need not be so soft. If any of the boys or girls have ever 

 seen their mothers make a " comfortable," or have discov- 

 ered the cotton inside of their " comfortable/' have them 

 tell about it. Then tear open the covering of the pod, and 

 show them, the spongy, cottony interior. 



Is Mother Milkweed as careful about her babies as is the 

 mother at home ? 



How the Milkweed Babies are Scattered. This lesson 

 will mean comparatively little unless the children have 

 watched the process, as urged on the preceding page. 



Many of the children have brothers and sisters working, 

 some in one factory or store, some in another, some scat- 

 tered in distant cities or States. Why so scattered? They 

 have gone where they could get work or could make a 



