PREFACE 



The little girl who tells this story goes from the 

 city to live in the country with her grandmother. 

 There, through the spring, summer, and the cool, 

 crisp autumn, she roams through woods, meadows 

 and swamps, and sees many things that pique her 

 curiosity. Most often it is the wild flowers she 

 wishes to know about; although she notices the 

 birds, the trees, and even a bullfrog. She sees that 

 the sky changes, and wonders why the dewdrops 

 cling so long to blades of grass. 



In her own way this little girl writes about 

 these things, using neither botanical terms nor 

 difficult words. 



The flowers she finds are the ones common 

 throughout the northeastern States of her country, 

 where hundreds of them bloom every year near 

 large cities. Now, however, the rarer flowers are 

 moving to places far away from men's dwellings, 

 because they have been picked so much by those 

 who think little of their preservation. She learns 

 that wild flowers have tender feelings, and that 

 they resent cruel treatment, even though they can- 

 not complain in the language of children. This 



