THE JEWEL-WEED'S LITTLE GAME 85 



new claims and hold them by right of settle- 

 ment, — a sort of "squatter sovereignty." 



Who does not know the surprise that lurks 

 in the pod of touch-me-not? When the seeds are 

 ripe, the game of pitch and toss begins. Imagine 

 a clump of plants situated at the very mouth of a 

 tiny glen. They had been sent thither as seeds, — 

 a sort of reconnoitering party, — by their parent 

 weed .last fall. In spring they took hold on what 

 soil they found and in 

 a few months' time 

 matured seeds of 

 their own. Up the 

 glen is a bit of moist 

 earth occupied last 

 year by a bluebell. 

 Is there room for 

 two? Who knows? 

 Pop ! two seeds are 

 shot into the air at 

 random. One falls 

 into the tiny stream 

 and is lost. The 

 other drops with a 

 light bounce among 

 the bluebell's leaves, 

 and edges down out 

 of sight. Planted for 

 life, come good or 

 ill luck! If the bluebell continues to drop all her 

 children over the ledge to find new homes, she 

 may never see her family spring up around her 



THE "LITTLE GAME" 



