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- 



