FINDING ODD FLOWERS 195 



leaves look like a rattlesnake's skin. When they 

 are bitten they run and get them to cure the 

 wound." 



"Do you believe they cure snake-bites?" I 

 asked. 



" Father doesn't," he answered. 



I told him that was strange, because both he 

 and his father were country people. 



" There are different kinds of country people," 

 he said. 



" Do you mean Uncle Hiram's kind? " I asked. 



" Not exactly," he said. 



" You mean country people like the man who 

 sells chickens to Grandmother?" 



Then Tommy nodded his head and said, " Yes, 

 that kind." 



I thought it would be a good idea for Sallie to 

 plant the Rattlesnake-weed in her garden for van- 

 ishing wild flowers, as then the country people 

 would know where to get a leaf quickly if they 

 should happen to be bitten by poisonous snakes. 

 Tommy said though that these plants were not 

 vanishing, and that we should see ever so many of 

 them from now on through the summer. 



" They like to grow best in light woods," he 

 said, " and people don't seem to pick them much." 



Often Tommy says that it is more the early 

 spring flowers that are vanishing than those which 

 are coming out now in summer. When the win- 

 ter is over people are often so glad to see green 



