64 LITTLE WANDERERS. 
fast as they can. They look exactly as if they were 
chasing the train. 
The tumbleweed does not send its seed children out 
alone into the world ; it goes along and spills them over 
the prairies, as it tumbles about ; for, after a while, the 
seeds get thoroughly ripe and fall off. If you were to 
see the tumbleweeds rolling about over the prairies in' 
the fall, you would not wonder there are so many of 
them growing everywhere in the summer. 
There are several kinds of tumbleweeds in the West. 
One of them is called the Eussian thistle, though it is 
not a thistle. It came from Europe and has proved to 
be the very worst weed the farmer has to deal with. 
It tumbles about in the fall, rolling^ far and wide over 
the prairies before the high winds. In a few years it 
has become such a nuisance that large sums of money 
are spent by the government to exterminate it. In 
some places the school children have been taught to 
recognize it and to pull it up wherever they see it 
growing. 
