During this week 

 of retirement the 

 stem continues to 

 wither sideways, 

 and the flower is 

 busy ripening its seeds, each 

 yellow floweret having a seed 

 of its own, from which there 

 grows a slender hair-like stalk 

 with a tiny feathered parachute 

 at its top. Gradually these lit- 

 tle feathery ends push upward 

 inside the calyx, and on the 

 seventh day, lo ! the withered 

 dandelion has appeared again 

 at the top of the grass. It now has a tiny brown 

 cap at its top, or perhaps has just lost it, and gives 

 us a glimpse of a white feathery tuft peeping 

 from its top. This little brown withered cap is 

 all that is left of the original golden blossom of 

 two weeks before, now a shrivelled mass, which 



