ANSWERS TO FRANCIS'S LETTER 43 



stalk to bear them, while the Preacher has two. 

 The Wake-robin has just three pointed, large 

 leaves, and they grow around the top of the stalk, 

 underneath the flower. This is white, with also 

 three pointed leaves, or petals, and it looks some- 

 thing like a fine lily that grows in mother's con- 

 servatory. There is only one place in our nearest 

 woods where it grows, and there Spring Beauty 

 Is on one side of it, and a little distance the other 

 way a stalk of Solomon's Seal is in bud." 



Francis didn't understand why the plant was 

 called Wake-robin, for he wrote he had never seen 

 that bird in shooting distance of it. 



Grandmother said this was from a pretty legend 

 telling that as the Trilliums, or Wake-robins, 

 blossomed early in the spring, they were the flow- 

 ers chosen to wake the robins. 



" But they don't open nearly as early as robins 

 are awake," Tommy argued. " And if Trilliums 

 live only In deep woods, I doubt that robins go 

 near them at all. They like to hop around on 

 lawns and build nests in orchards. They are 

 almost as fond of the sun as Spring Beauty." 



Tommy asked Grandmother to write that he 

 should not give up trying to find Wake-robins 

 somewhere near our home, and he wanted her also 

 to tell Francis that two days ago he had seen three 

 Scarlet Tanagers sitting on a fallen tree-trunk near 

 the rock called Old Adam. He looked around by 

 accident and there they were In a row, their wings 



