Now, if the Persian peach tree had not made its fruit very juicy and delicious, it is not likely that any one would have taken the trouble to bring its seeds way over here to us.
But this peach being what it is, one of the most delicious of fruits, the tree was rewarded for its pains by having its children taken where they were petted, and made much of, and had things all their own way; for no other peach trees were on hand to do their best to crowd them out.
Then think of the little partridge berry. The fleshy part of this the birds eat and digest. But the little seeds pass unharmed from the bird’s stomach to the earth, sometimes many miles from the woods where they were born.
What is true of the peach and of the partridge berry is true of many other fruits.
Without the help of man or bird or beast, these little seeds could at last get out of their seed cases; but without such help, often they could not get the start in life they need.
So it would seem as if a fruit’s bright color and delicious flavor were saying to us not only, “Come and eat us and set our seeds free,” but also, “and carry us far away, so that we may have a fair chance in the world.”
SOME LITTLE TRAMPS
Fig. 43
When I came home from that walk in the woods the other day, it took me some time to rid my clothes of many odd-looking little things, such as you see in the picture above (Fig. [43]).