POOR ROBIN'S PLANTAIN 97 



why it's called Poor Robin's Plantain. It's here 

 before its true friends, although Wild Geranium 

 IS like a companion to it since they grow usually 

 in the same places. They're not one bit alike, 

 however, and belong to different families. Yet it 

 has hundreds of near relatives which don't come 

 until It's old and gone to seed, dead perhaps." 



This did seem very sad. I told Tommy I 

 should be Poor Robin's friend, for I had no 

 brothers, nor sisters, nor any family but Grand- 

 mother. 



We went on to the village then and came back 

 through our own woods. Here we saw a few 

 more Poor Robins, and one of them had grown 

 up as tall as I. The others were shorter. Wild 

 Geraniums were all about. 



Each day now the woods get more full of green 

 leaves. 



*' When Poor Robin's relatives come in the 

 autumn there'll be hardly a flower left here," 

 Tommy said. " We'll do all our hunting then 

 out in the open, by the roads and in the fields." 

 I couldn't quite make out why, when it is only 

 May, Tommy should want to talk so much about 

 the autumn. Summer has not even begun. He 

 " sees signs," he says, and by this I suppose he 

 means that a Wild Geranium's leaf has turned to 

 bright red and that Poor Robin's Plantain is here 

 before its relatives. 



After I have lived in the country a long time 



