FALL PLANT STUDY. 383 



with its arm and fingers changed to a balloon. Why did 

 Mother Dandelion lift her seed babies up so high ? Why 

 did Mother Milkweed make her seed cradles, or pods, so 

 near the top of her stalk? Why did the milkweed pod 

 gape open so wide ? Why does the dandelion mother turn 

 her cradle inside out, and change it into a hairy ball, when 

 and not until her seed babies are ready to fly ? 



How many seeds there are ? How far they go ? Do 

 you think the wind enjoys carrying the babies about? 

 How gently they settle to the earth ! There they will go 

 to sleep. The trees will scatter their leaves over them, 

 and Jack Frost will send a warm snow blanket for them. 

 They will rest all winter long. Then what will happen 

 next spring, when the rain taps, and the sun shines, and 

 the birds sing ? 



REVIEW STORY. DANDELION DOWN. 



44 Floss-Hair ran out to play in the sunshine among the dandelions. 

 Grandmamma watched her from the doorway where she sat spinning, 

 her little bright head in its halo of silky gold. Suddenly Floss-Hair 

 paused, and turned a questioning glance towards the doorway. 



44 Grandmamma looked very lovely to Floss-Hair from where she 

 stood. A silvery sunbeam danced around her spinning-wheel, so 

 that she seemed to spin behind a veil of gossamer ; and in her gray 

 dress, with her quiet eyes smiling out from under her white, smooth 

 hair, she was more than beautiful. 



44 Floss-Hair broke a downy seed-globe from its stalk, and blew it 

 one, two, three times. The plumes fluttered around her in the air ; 

 not one was left on the stem. 4 Grandmamma wants me,' she said, and 

 ran back to the door. * What was it stopped your play, little one ? ' 

 * Why, there is scarcely a dandelion left there in the grass ; and in 

 their places are rows of round gray heads, standing up like ghosts. 

 Why need flowers die, grandmamma ? ' 



44 ' Did you see where the seed-feathers went, Floss-Hair, when you 

 blew them from the stem ? ' 



44 4 Oh! into the air, to sail off on the clouds perhaps.' 



" 4 No, no, dear ; some of them glided away to hide under the velvet 



