August Twenty-second
The fresh-water clam furnishes us with a good quality of pearl, and from the shells pearl buttons are made. Along the muddy bottom of our inland lakes and rivers, you may see the clumsy writing in the mud where they have crawled. During a clam's infancy it lives a parasitic life, embedded in the body of a fish. It then emerges and drops to the bottom of the lake or river, where it spends the remainder of its life.
August Twenty-third
"Those horrid tomato worms are eating all my plants. They are positively the most repulsive creatures I know." A few weeks later a beautiful sphinx moth flutters into your chamber window. Do you recognize it as your hated enemy? It is he,—a "wolf in sheep's clothing."
August Twenty-fourth
The cardinal flower, or red lobelia, lives in the marshes and along the streams, where it often trespasses so near the brink, that a slight freshet floods its roots. "We have no flower which can compare with this in vivid coloring." (Dana.) In some localities it has been in bloom for weeks.