148 FROM FRANCIS AND SALLIE 



quite easily. Sometimes on this account the plant is 

 called Huntsman's Cup, or else Sidesaddle Flower. 



" Look at this sweet, sticky stuff that lines 

 them," Grandmother said, " and see how many 

 little bristles there are down near the bottom. 

 Were you and I flies, instead of bees as we were 

 playing, we should sip this sweet stuff, and then 

 wander on to get more until we crossed the bristles, 

 or tumbled into the rain-water that is still in the 

 bottom of the pitcher. It's doubtful if we should 

 ever get out alive, for if we escaped drowning, 

 we could not walk up over all those glass-like 

 bristles. We should be prisoners for life, and as 

 this plant, like Venus's Fly-trap, has a taste for 

 animal food, it would digest us in a way of its own. 



Francis had found the Pitcher-plant in a 

 sphagnum bog, the only place he knew of where it 

 grew. 



There was still a little tuft of earth about the 

 Pitchers, and Grandmother thought if we planted 

 them and kept them in the library window they 

 might live for a long time. We are also going to 

 feed each Pitcher a fly a day, so that they need 

 not die from being hungry. 



Tommy is out now in the woods trying to find 

 something as beautiful as the Laurel and Pitcher- 

 plant to write Francis about. 



Sallie's letter was not as long as Francis's. She 

 was so busy with her " intentions " that she hadn't 

 much time. She is planting a garden of vanish- 



