The mothers said, as they called the children from their play, "See, there is the good dandelion! He knows when it is time to go to bed."
As the dandelion grew older, his yellow curls turned white. Then the children would blow—one, two, three times. If all the hairs blew away, it was a sign that mother wanted them at once.
If there were ten hairs left, the children said, "Mother wants us at ten o'clock." If but two hairs remained, they said, "Mother will look for us at two o'clock."
When the children awoke in the morning, they saw the morning-glory cups peeping in at the windows. "Six o'clock! Time to get up!" they said. "The morning glories are calling us."
Every afternoon the four-o'clocks bloomed. Their red and white flowers told the children that their father would soon be home.
In the evening the moon flowers unfolded their great white blossoms on the vines that clambered over the porch. "Now it is bedtime," said the children, "for the moon flowers are looking down at us."
All day long the time flowers, like our clocks, are telling us the time of day.
—Kate Louise Brown.