524 NATURE STUDY. 



TALKING IN THEIR SLEEP. 



"' You think I'm dead,' 

 The apple tree said, 



* Because I have never a leaf to show, 

 Because I stoop, 



And my branches droop, 



And the dull gray mosses over me grow ! 



But I'm all alive in trunk and shoot ; 



The buds of next May 



I fold away 



But I pity the withered grass at my root. ' 



* You think I'm dead,' 

 The quick grass said, 



' Because I have parted with stem and blade ! 



But under the ground 



I am safe and sound 



With the snow's thick blanket over me laid, 



I'm all alive and ready to shoot. 



Should the spring of the year 



Come dancing here 



But I pity the flowers without branch or root.' 



4 You think I'm dead,' 

 A soft voice said, 



* Because not a branch or root I own. 

 I never have died, 



But close I hide 



In a plumy seed that the wind has sown, 



Patient I wait through the long winter hours ; 



You will see me again 



I shall laugh at you then, 



Out of the eyes of a hundred flowers.' " 



EDITH M. THOMAS in St. Nicholas. 



We are ready now for some real science, real observation 

 as distinguished from talking. What we have had is nature 

 study ; but our scientific friends will not let us call it science 

 because they will tell us there is too much poetry and 



