4 I GO TO THE COUNTRY 



many things for me to find out — I mean real 

 secrets about the wild flowers. Perhaps I shall 

 have adventures while hunting for them. When 

 Grandmother was a girl she says she thought life 

 in the spring was most exciting. 



It is very fortunate that I called out to Tommy 

 that morning, for he often comes to see us now, 

 and Grandmother says that he is " reliable." 

 Yesterday we walked down the side of the stream 

 to where little low trees were leaning over its 

 edge, and looking as though they might take a 

 tumble any minute. There were no more leaves 

 on them than on any of the other trees, but along 

 the sides of their twigs little buds were sticking 

 out as soft and gray as the back of a pussy. I 

 ought to have known that these were Pussy Wil- 

 lows, for I had often seen them for sale, tied in 

 bunches ; only here they looked so much softer and 

 grayer, holding tight to the bare tree. 



Tommy finds fewer of them every year, because 

 they are picked by many people to sell ; and some 

 day he thinks they will only dare to peep out 

 miles and miles away from houses and trolleys. 



" So you found Pussy Willow to-day? " Grand- 

 mother said in the evening. " Next you will 

 come telling me all about Skunk Cabbage." 



We had seen this plant the very first day it 

 pushed a spike of green through the ground; 

 Tommy was showing me the swampy place where it 

 grows every year. Since then, as we told Grand- 



