THE AUSTRIAN PINE 1 85 



carefully? We will not break into her house. We 

 will lay these cones where we can watch them. [If 

 possible, the children should hear and see the doors 

 pop open. This will happen after they have been 

 in the warm room a few hours.] Now that the 

 cone has opened her, doors we will look in and see 

 if we can find what secret she was keeping. [The 

 children discover two little seeds behind each door, 

 each with a large wing.] How cozily they lie in the 

 little room ! They are well worth guarding. Why ? 

 Why were they shut in so tightly ? What will open 

 the doors of the cones on the trees? (The sun.) 

 When will they open? What will the seeds do 

 then? How will the wing help them? The tiny 

 cones are placed also in the warm room and left 

 there for some time. Why do they not open? 



Some old cones may be found with their doors 

 open. Inside are no good seeds. Why is that so? 

 (The seeds flew away last spring when the warm sun 

 opened the doors.) [The children now make a draw- 

 ing of the twig with cones of two sizes. They tell 

 the secrets of the cones. They draw a single door 

 with the two seeds, and one seed by itself, and tell 

 the secret of the seeds. A number of seeds are kept 

 for planting when spring shall come.] 



