Transcriber's Note: This book was written in a time in which we didn't know what we know now. For example, we now know foxglove to be very poisonous and would not suggest children use the blossoms for fairy caps. Please use caution if attempting any of these crafts. And don't play with foxglove.

Mother Nature's
Toy-Shop

Mother Nature's
Toy-Shop

By
LINA BEARD AND ADELIA B. BEARD
With Many Illustrations
by the Authors
Charles Scribner's Sons
New York Chicago Boston

Copyright, 1918, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
SPECIAL NOTICE

All the material in this book, both text and cuts, is original with the authors and invented by them; and warning is hereby given that the unauthorized printing of any portion of the text and the reproduction of any of the illustrations or diagrams are expressly forbidden.

PRESENTATION

Mother Nature is every bit as fond of the little folks in her human family as of the grown-ups, and while she prepares untold joys for lovers of the outdoors among men and women and larger boys and girls, she never forgets the little ones.

For their benefit she keeps an open toy-shop full of marvellous playthings, all free to any child who wants them, and instead of the children paying her for what they take she pays them for coming to her by giving them rosier cheeks, brighter eyes, and stronger bodies. She puts more glee into their laughter and greater happiness into their trustful little hearts.

As in the large department stores in big cities, the goods in Mother Nature's shop are changed for each season of the year; so the little shoppers have constant variety and hail every new season with fresh delight. This book is written to call attention to the beautiful and wonderful things to be found in Mother Nature's toy-shop and to tell what to do with them, for one must know how to use the amusing material that is furnished.

After really getting into this most enchanting of all toy-shops with eyes open to see its wonders, we found that the difficulty to be met was not how to write about them, but how to stop writing. The display was so varied and so inviting, it seemed that we must tell the children about everything we saw, but if we had gone on seeing more and telling more there is no saying what size this book would have been.

Lina Beard,
Adelia Belle Beard.

CONTENTS

Mother Nature's
Toy-Shop

PART I
WILD FLOWERS

CHAPTER I
DAISIES

What You Can Do with Them

Wild flowers, like children, are up early. They don't want to lie abed after their long winter's sleep; they want to be awake and see what is going on in the world. While you think it is still winter there is a stirring going on under the blankets of brown earth, and sometimes before the snow is off the ground you may find the little things working up through the stiff soil and opening their eyes to the gentle spring sunshine.

It is remarkable the way the soft, tender sprouts force their way through hard ground that we would have to take a knife or trowel to dig into. But they do it. Not all at once with a great, blustering rush, but gently, steadily, and quietly they push and keep on pushing until their heads are above ground; then they begin to grow in good earnest, and pretty soon they laugh right out into blossom.

The pleasure these earliest wild flowers give us is in going out to look for them and in gathering handfuls to carry home and put into little glass bowls to be "Oh'd" over and wondered at, to be admired and loved because they are lovely, and because they bring some of the sweet outdoors of spring into the furnace-heated house.

They are too delicate and fragile, these anemones, hepaticas, and bloodroots, to be handled and played with, but later come the stronger, sturdier flowers and with many of these you can do all sorts of entertaining things. You don't have to look very far for them either. They are in the fields, by the roadsides, and even along the edges of the streets of a village or small town. You won't find them in the city.

To begin with, there are the daisies. How white the fields are with them! If they are fine, large daisies on tall, strong stems they will reach up to your waist—that is, if you are a little girl. If you are bigger they will come well above your knees. There are a number of things that you can do with them. First, you can make a really beautiful

Daisy Crown

for a May queen, or to wear yourself just for the fun of it.

Fig.1 - Begin the wreath in this way.

Fig.2 - Turn the stem of B under the stem of A

Gather a whole lot of daisies with rather long stems. They will stay fresh longer if you put them into a pail of cool water and let them drink a little before using them; and if they have wilted while you carried them, the water will bring them up again as fresh as—why, as fresh as a daisy to be sure. This is the way to make the crown. It is a new way and a good way.

Fig.3 - Bring B around and in front of it's own upright.

Take one daisy in your left hand and hold it, not upright but in what is called a horizontal position like the one marked A in [Fig. 1], then with your right hand hold another daisy upright and place its stem in front of and across the stem of the first, as you see it in [Fig. 1].

Fig.4 - Let the stem of B rest on the stem of A

This second daisy we will call B. Now turn the stem of B under the stem of A and up at the back as it is in [Fig. 2]. Bring this same stem, B, around and in front of its own upright part like [Fig. 3]. Turn it all the way around the upright part and let the stem of B rest on top of the stem of A. [Fig. 4] shows this, but in the drawing the stems are separated a little so that you may see each one plainly. It is something like weaving, you see. And it is weaving of a sort.

Fig.5 - Weave another daisy, C, on the first two stems.

Across the stems of the daisies A and B, two stems this time, place the stem of another daisy that we will call C, and weave it on the first two stems exactly as you wove B onto A ([Fig. 5]). The stem of the fourth daisy will have to cross three stems, A, B, and C. The fifth daisy-stem will cross four stems, but after that the end of the daisy-stem A will probably have been passed and you will be weaving on the others. It depends upon the length of the stems how many are woven over; sometimes there may be five. It is not well to have more than that number. You can cut a stem off when it seems to be going too far around the crown.

Fig.6 - A new way to make a Daisy Wreath.

Place the daisies close enough together to have their petals touch, or even crowd a trifle, because when the crown is curved and the ends brought together the flowers will separate and leave wider spaces. When you have woven enough daisies to make your crown the proper size to fit your head, cut the last stems off about two inches from the last flower and, with a strong blade of grass or piece of string, tie them to the stem of the daisy A, just back of the flower. [Fig. 6] shows what the daisy crown looks like when finished.

CHAPTER II
JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT

One of the earliest wild flowers to show its head above ground is Jack-in-the-pulpit. It is an odd plant and what we call the flower is not the blossom at all, but a protecting leaf called a spathe which surrounds the tiny flowers growing on the club-shaped spike (or spadix) standing upright inside.

That is a good thing to know and remember, but what concerns us now is that there is a pulpit with its curved sounding-board—or perhaps it is a striped awning—overhead, and that in the pulpit is Jack.

He is a cheerful little preacher and his pulpit is somewhat gayer than we usually see, but no one ever told Jack that to be good he must be solemn and that to preach he must have a pulpit rich and sombre. The good God who made him gave him his pretty, striped pulpit with its striped awning to shelter it, and Jack goes on preaching his cheerful sermons from this as long as he lives. Hear what some one has said of him:

"Jack-in-the-Pulpit preaches to-day,
Under the green trees, just over the way;
Squirrel and Song-Sparrow high on their perch,
Hear the sweet lily-bells ringing to church.
"Come, hear what his reverence rises to say,
In his low, painted pulpit, this calm Sabbath day.
Fair is the canopy over him seen
Pencilled by Nature's hand, black, brown, and green."

Fig.7 - Cut a hole at the back of the Pulpit.

Some people who love the woods and the wild flowers can understand Jack's wild-wood language. They will tell you that over and over again he is saying: "Come into the clean, shady woods and learn to love all the wonderful living, growing things to be found here. Come into the green woods and hear what we can tell you of beauty and love and kindness; of courage and perseverance and strength, for plants must have courage and perseverance as well as strength in order to live."

All the time these plants are working in the ground and above it to make their flowers perfect and their seeds fruitful. Sometimes it is difficult work, too, if the soil does not give them enough food, or a dry summer chokes them with thirst. Sometimes they must struggle hard to gain a footing between the rocks where they were told to grow, or to keep from being crowded out by stronger, coarser plants that are called weeds.

But they keep on trying to do their part and to do it well; they work and love, and their children, the blossoms, laugh, laugh, laugh with the happiness of it all.

Now if Jack seems to you to stand too still in his pulpit while he preaches all this, why you can make him move around. He can turn first to one side then to the other, and he can lean forward over the front with extended arms as some preachers do when they are very much in earnest.

For this you will first have to cut a hole at the back of the pulpit near the bottom, as is shown in [Fig. 7], then, slipping your knife inside, cut Jack loose from the flower and drop him out from the top by turning the pulpit upside down.

Cut off the lower, thin part of the spike to which the arrow points in [Fig. 8] and, after puncturing a deep hole in the end, push in a very slender twig or grass-stem. [Fig. 9] shows how this is done. For arms that will make Jack seem more like a little man, push a short piece of grass-stem through the spike near the top where you see it in [Fig. 9]. Make a hole all the way through the spike with a pin so that the arms will slip in easily.

When you are ready for Jack to preach put him in his pulpit, sliding the grass-stem through the hole at the back. While you hold the stem of the pulpit in one hand take the grass-stem in the other and, by moving it up and down, twisting it one way, then the other, and tipping it up, you can make him rise up tall and straight, then sink down; you can make him turn to the right and to the left and lean forward. That is being active enough in such a small pulpit, isn't it?

CHAPTER III
RED AND WHITE CLOVERS

By the roadside, through the meadows, on the farm, at the cottage door, and in your own yard those dear, familiar little friends, the clover-blossoms, come to greet you. Even in city parks you may find them, and always they are ready and glad to help you have a good time. Gather a lot of these flowers and sit in the shade under a tree with your lap filled with them while I tell you how to make a

Clover Wreath

Select some long-stemmed blossoms and leaves, bunch them and bind their stems together their full length with strong grass or string. Wind the grass around and around the stems, tucking the ends securely in under the last wind. You may need several long blades of grass for binding one bunch.

In the same way make a second bunch and fit the flowers up close against the first bunch of blossoms, with their stems lying along the side of the first stems. Do not lap the flowers of one bunch over the flowers of another. Fasten the second bunch in place by binding the stems to those of the first bunch; then make a third bunch and bind it on next to the second bunch. Continue making these clover bunches and binding their stems to the stems of those already a part of the wreath until the strip is long enough to fit around your head. Try it on and, if it is the proper length, join the two ends by binding the last stems to the stems of the first bunches. [Fig. 10] shows the clover wreath complete.

Fig.10 - Wreath of freshly picked Clover.

You should also have a

Clover Bracelet

to wear with the wreath. Make this as you did the wreath but with much smaller bunches. Keep binding the bunches together until the strip for the bracelet fits your arm ([Fig. 11]), then join the two ends, and slip the pretty thing on your wrist. Of course, you will want

Clover Earrings

to match, and those two plump, full, fresh blossoms lying at the top of the others on your lap are exactly what you need.

Fig.11 - Clover bracelet.

Take one of these clovers and fit it in tight between your cheek and the lobe of your ear ([Fig. 12]). Be careful not to break the long stem, for you must bring it up snugly just back of your ear along the line where the ear joins your head, and when this is done, bend the end of the stem down gently over the top of your ear. The stem will hold your earring in place. Make the other earring in the same way. The two clover-blossoms used for the earrings should be as much alike as possible both in size and shape. They should be matched carefully, as pearls and diamonds are matched in a pair of real earrings.

Now for a "solitaire"

Clover Ring

Choose the finest clover for the jewel, and hold it against the back of your left forefinger while you wrap the stem once around the finger, loop it over the blossom and draw the loop tight. Fasten the end by tucking it under and over, and again under the stem ring on your finger. This clover ring is really very effective, and can be made of any colored clover. [Fig. 13] gives an idea of how it looks.

A Necklace of Clover

will complete your beautiful set of flower jewelry. Make the necklace as you made the bracelet and fasten three pendant blossoms at the centre, allowing the middle clover to hang down a little below those on either side ([Fig. 14]).

Now you are ready, with the addition of a long, straight twig, at the top of which you have fastened a bouquet of clover, to play that you are queen of all the clover fairies, and that your clover-tipped twig is your magic wand.

Other Things of Clover

The running, vinelike clovers are fine to use for climbing-roses on outdoor doll-houses. They can also be trained over the doll garden-frames and arches.

CHAPTER IV
CLOVER DESIGNS

Have you ever admired the pretty patterns on wallpaper of flowers and green leaves? Have you ever embroidered dainty designs in colors on white linen, and do you love it all? If you do, you will like to make some designs yourself in a new way, and with real flowers and real leaves.

You don't have to know how to draw or to paint in this designing, for the flowers are there ready for you to use, more exquisitely drawn and colored than the greatest artist could do them. Your part is to group and arrange them on a sheet of paper so that they will form beautiful designs; designs that will not only delight you, but that may be copied in embroidery or in other ways.

Merely to place the flowers on the paper in some sort of a pattern is interesting, but the design won't last because the flowers won't stay in place. Your sleeve may wipe them all off, or a puff of air blow them away, so a method has been invented especially for you that will keep them where you want them to stay, and that method is simply to paste them there.

You can make designs of almost any kind of flowers, the common pink-and-white clover that grows underfoot nearly everywhere makes a particularly pretty one. This is the long-stemmed, viny kind, and its name is alsike clover. [Fig. 15] shows what the alsike clover looks like, and you will see that its leaves are rather pointed at the tip, and shaped more like the leaves of the large red clover than like the almost round ones of the little white clover.

Fig.15 - The Alsike Clover. Deep rose color. The way it grows.

Fig.16 - Upright design of Alsike Clover.

The graceful, upright design ([Fig. 16]) was made of the alsike clover, the blossom of which was a deep-rose color, and the original design when finished looked like a piece of embroidery done in silks. It was so lovely I wish that it could be given in its natural colors here.

Fig.17 - Parts of upright Clover design.

Look at [Fig. 16] carefully and see that while the sprays of clover at the right and left appear to be exactly alike, though turned in opposite directions, they are not really so, and the little differences help to make the design interesting. They keep it from being what we call monotonous. Now look at D, E, and F, [Fig. 17]. These are tracings of the sprays of clover before they were grouped together to form the design [Fig. 16]. The spray on the left, marked D, is just as it grew and as it was used in the finished design; but F, on the right, had to have the little budded spray added at the place on the stem shown by the arrows to make it resemble and balance the other. This bud with its leaves was clipped from another clover-vine.

Fig.18 - Running design of Clover.

The spray in the centre of the design was like E, [Fig. 17], and it was necessary to give it the extra leaves shown at its right because, without them, it was not symmetrical, which means evenly balanced, and it would not have looked well in the design.

Fig.19 - Parts of running design.

When all of the material was collected and ready to be put together, the central spray, E, was laid in the middle of a sheet of unruled, white paper with the lower end of the stem near the bottom edge, then the sprays D and F were placed on the right and left of the centre one and tried first in one position, then in another, until it was decided that they looked best arranged as in [Fig. 16]. After that the extra leaves for the middle spray, and the bud and its leaves for the right-hand spray, were put in place.

Fig.20 - Large Red Clover design.

It all seemed charmingly satisfactory, so the design was taken apart that it might be fastened permanently in place. The middle spray had to be adjusted first, and a drop of good library paste was put on the under-side of the clover-blossom, a drop on the under part of each leaf, and on the under part of the stem at the lower end. Then the spray was laid in the middle of the paper just where it was at first, and pressed down to make it stick. Paste was put on the under part of each of the three leaves to be added and on the under part of their stem at the end, and they were pasted down to look as if growing on the main stem, opposite the other leaves.

Fig.21 - Design of leaves and buds of Red Clover.

Fig.22 - Parts of leaf and bud design.

Next the left-hand spray was pasted in place in the same way, then the right-hand spray, to which was given its bud that curves in to almost touch the bud on the other spray. Paste was also put half-way down on the under part of the long stems of each of the side sprays.

This completed the clover design and it was exceedingly pretty, but after it had been sufficiently admired it was placed between papers under several heavy books to press, that it might be more durable. It was after it had been pressed that it looked like a piece of silk embroidery.

Pasted designs can be made without pressing; but while they are more beautiful they will not last as long as the others. You can enjoy your fresh designs for a while and then press them. Do not make the mistake of covering the entire under part of a flower or leaf with paste as if it were made of paper; a drop is all that is needed, more will spoil it.

Flowers do not always grow exactly as you want them for your designs, but a too straight stem can be coaxed to curve by drawing it between your fingers, and leaves and sprays can be cut away or added as has been shown. All this changing about only makes it more fun to work out the design.

[Fig. 18] is a running design of clovers which can be used for a border. The little arrows on [Fig. 19] show where the different parts are joined.

The large red clover was used for the design [Fig. 20] and the leaves and buds of the red clover for [Fig. 21]. [Fig. 22] shows how the parts of [Fig. 21] are put together. These drawings are all original from designs actually made of fresh clover-blossoms and their foliage.

CHAPTER V
OTHER WILD-FLOWER DESIGNS

Daisy Fleabane Design

Isn't the design [Fig. 23] what grown-ups call Japanesque? Doesn't it look as if it had been copied from a printed pattern on a piece of Japanese cotton cloth?

Fig.23 - Daisy Fleabane design

Well, it was not. It is from a design made especially for you of real wild flowers, freshly gathered. The name of the flower is the daisy fleabane which grows in almost all open grassy fields where daisies and buttercups and clovers are found.

The illustration [Fig. 24] shows how the daisy fleabane looks when first gathered. Sometimes the blossom is entirely white, sometimes it is tinged with purple, and it has a bright-yellow centre. Its petals are as fine as a fringe, like those of the asters that blossom in the fall.

In making the design the full-blown flowers were pressed down flat, which makes them round like a sunflower, while the buds and partly open flowers were left as they naturally grew. The composition, or arrangement, of this design is like that used for the upright clover design ([Fig. 16]), that is, it has two tall side sprays and a shorter middle spray; but see how very different the two designs are in appearance. The clover is all graceful curves, the daisy fleabane is stiff and formal with straight lines and angles.

If you use the white flower, make the design on a sheet of tinted paper, else the flower will not show. All white flowers should have tinted paper for a background.

Wild Mustard Design

The small, yellow blossoms of the wild mustard and its compound leaves make very dainty designs. [Fig. 25] is one of them.

Fig.25 - Wild Mustard design.

From the drawing of the wild mustard ([Fig. 26]) you will see that the flowers do not grow close to the leaves as they are placed in this design, but on tall stems which lift them far above the scattered leaf-sprays. The design [Fig. 25] was made by cutting off a number of flower-clusters and leaves, and grouping first one flower-cluster and one leaf-spray together, with the ends of their stems touching, then another flower-cluster and another leaf-spray. The arrows in [Fig. 27] show where the stems are brought together, and the design [Fig. 25] shows how the joining of the first two is covered with one of the small leaves of the second leaf-spray, and how the joining of the second two is hidden under a leaf of the third leaf-spray, and so on.

Fig.27 - Parts of Wild Mustard design.

There are four flower-clusters and five leaf-sprays in the design. You can have as many as you wish but must end them with a leaf-spray.

Fig.28 - Buttercup design.

Buttercups—a Design

Buttercups are so beautifully golden, so glossy and bright, you would think they could be made into many nice things, a gold necklace for instance. And so they could if they only would not wilt almost as soon as they are gathered. To be sure, they will revive and freshen up when put in water if they are not too much wilted, but we cannot make them into jewelry while their stems are in water.

Still there is something buttercups can be used for, and that is designs. [Fig. 28] is a drawing from the simplest kind of a buttercup design but a pretty one. It shows five wide-open blossoms placed in a row at equal distances apart with a little spray of leaves and bud at the lower end of each stem. These sprays do not grow as they are in the design but are added after the flowers are placed in a row.

As in all other designs, each flower, bud, and stem is touched with paste on the under-side to hold it in place on the paper. A design like [Fig. 28] should be pressed after it is arranged, and it will last a long while and keep its bright color. A number of other and very beautiful designs can be made of the common wild buttercup.

CHAPTER VI
PUSSY-WILLOWS

We all welcome and love the dear little pussy-willows ([Fig. 29]) whose fur is so soft and silvery. How pretty they look sitting along the slender, bare branches of the small American willow-tree which is their home. The pussies like to come early to assure us that spring is here. They are very tame little kitties, and will allow you to carry them away to your school or to your home.

Fig.29 - Pussy-Willows.

Sometimes pussy-willows turn into little rabbits, squirrels, bumblebees, and mice, but they need your help, they cannot make the magic change alone. It will be lots of fun helping them if you do it this way.

Fig.30 - The Rabbit and the Rabbit's ears, enlarged.

Fig.31 - The Pussy-Willow Bunnies.

Pussy-Willow Rabbits

Take a small branch of the very largest pussies you can find, have ready some scraps of smooth, fresh writing-paper, a piece of cardboard, pair of scissors, and some good paste. It only requires long ears to change the pussy-willows into bunnies. Cut the ears from your writing-paper like the pattern [Fig. 30]. Put paste on the strip between the letters G and H, then take a pussy from the branch and stick the paste-covered strip just above the small end of the pussy, which will be the bunny's head. The arrow I, [Fig. 30], points to the place for the ears. When the paste has dried bend the ears up like the ears of the rabbits in [Fig. 31]. Make three or four rabbits to keep each other company and paste them in a row on your piece of cardboard.

Fig.34 - The Pussy-Willow Bumble-Bee.

A Pussy-Willow Squirrel

This little gray squirrel ([Fig. 32]), sitting up in such a lifelike pose, must be made of a slightly bent, rather long, slender pussy. Pull forward some of the fur near the small end so that it will look like the front legs of the squirrel when he holds a nut in his hand-like front paws, and push up two tufts on the head for ears. The pussy from which [Fig. 32] was made already had these tufts for legs and ears, and it looked so much like a squirrel one simply had to add the tail and let it be a squirrel.

Cut the paper tail like the pattern [Fig. 33], fringe it along the edge and bend forward the little lap at the bottom which is separated from the tail by the dotted line. Curve the tail backward, put paste on top of the lap, and stick the lap to the under part of the large end of the pussy; then paste the finished squirrel to a piece of pasteboard cut round or square as you like best.

Pussy-Willow Bumblebee

Mr. Bumblebee ([Fig. 34]) needs one whole pussy for his body, one-half of a pussy for his big, round throat, and a small piece of the pussy for his head ([Fig. 35]). On the piece of cardboard which is to hold the bee, draw his legs like [Fig. 36], then paste the three parts—body, throat, and head—on top of the legs. [Fig. 37] shows how it would look underneath if you could see through the paper, so you will know exactly where to paste first the throat, then the head, and lastly the body. The edges of these parts where they join must be pushed close together.

A bumblebee has slightly curved spikes extending from his head which are called antennæ. [Fig. 38] shows you where to draw them. You will also see on the same diagram how to widen the six legs, making them thicker and more lifelike. Cut paper wings the shape of [Fig. 39], making them the proper size to fit your bee. Remember that a bumblebee has small, short wings compared to the size of its body. Bend the lap at the bottom of the wing along the dotted line, and paste the lap of each wing onto the sides of Mr. Bumblebee's chest. The wings turn back over the laps and hide them. (See [Fig. 40]). The finished bee is shown in [Fig. 34].

If you cut a leaf out of green paper and put your bumble-bee on that instead of on the cardboard, he will look, with his extended wings, as if just ready to fly, and will make a fine addition to your collection of things made of outdoor material.

Fig.41 - Pussy-Willow Mouse, enlarged.

Pussy-Willow Mouse

Then there is the pussy-willow mouse ([Fig. 41]). He is a nice little gray mouse with a long tail.

Choose a large pussy-willow for this mouse, ruffle the fur up on top of the head and it will look like ears. The head is at the small end of the pussy. Paste one end of a piece of cotton string under the large end of the mouse, and that will be his tail. The string should be white.

Fig.42 - Jumping Pussy-Willow Game-Board.

Finish by pasting the mouse to a round or square piece of pasteboard.

Jumping Pussy-Willows—a Game

This is a good game and it will make you laugh to see the pussies leap up in the air, sail along a short distance, and land on a numbered square of the game-board.

The board ([Fig. 42]) should be ten or twelve inches square. Cut it from a flat, even box lid or any other pasteboard you happen to have. Draw straight lines from top to bottom about one inch apart, then more straight lines from side to side one inch apart. This will divide the board into squares like a checker-board. Each of these squares must be numbered and you can draw or paste them in. [Fig. 42] shows how the game-board should look.

To play the game, lay the board down on a flat surface, a stone will do if you are out-of-doors, or even the ground; and a table, if in the house. In front of the board draw a short line for the starting-post. The line should be ten or more inches from the board according to the distance you can make the pussies jump. Any number of players may join in the game and each player should have his own jumping pussy.

Fig.43 - Place your finger on the Pussy-Willow and make it jump.

[Fig. 43] shows how to place the pussy under the tip of your right forefinger, with the large, blunt end standing a little out beyond the finger-tip. When ready to shoot, press down suddenly on the pussy and, as your finger slides off the small end, away jumps pussy and lands on a square of the game-board. Each player plays in turn, always, of course, placing the pussy on the starting-line when shooting. The player whose pussy lands on the highest number wins the game. Jumping pussy-willow can also be played by dividing the players into two even sides; then the side which has the highest score, after the numbers won by them have been added up, is the winner.

Pussy-Willow Bouquet

A nice, big bunch of pussy-willows makes an attractive bouquet, and a very welcome one early in the spring. "The pussies are out!" we hear some one say, and then the boys and girls vie with one another in their effort to be the first to find and bring home branches of the little catkins as proof that spring has come and they were the first to see her.

CHAPTER VII
ARRANGEMENT OF FLOWERS

The arrangement of flowers is interesting and means a great deal. It means that this chapter will tell you what wild flowers look prettiest on the dinner-table and in bowls and vases in other parts of the house; what flowers and vines will keep fresh longest, and the kind that do not need water but are beautiful when dry. It means that you can learn not to force a tightly packed handful of all sorts of flowers into a small vase and expect them to look well. Flowers don't like crowding and are quite particular about their associates.

If you come in hot and tired after your walk, put the flowers you have gathered into a pail of fresh water and let them stay there until you have rested and are ready to sort them out and make each kind look its very best. All flowers do not appear well in stiff, straight vases; all do not look well in bowls. That is the first thing to learn, and the next is that while some flowers seem to smile upon and nestle lovingly up to some others, there are kinds that they seem to draw away from and frown upon. Only a few examples can be given here. If you love the flowers you will find out more for yourself.

The Wild Morning-Glory

In your walks through the fields and along the country roadsides have you ever noticed the wild morning-glory? Of course, you have seen it and, perhaps, gathered some blossoms, only to find them in a short time wilted in your hand or turned into little, long bags, puckered at the top as if drawn up with a string.

Fig.44 - This is the way the Wild Morning Glory looks.

When I say noticed, I mean have you thought about the flowers while you looked at them? Have you noticed their shape and beautiful color, and have you seen the great difference between the green leaf of the wild morning-glory and that of the cultivated one?

Fig.45 - The Wild Morning Glory blossomed after it was gathered.

The wild morning-glory leaf ([Fig. 44]) is more beautiful in shape, the vine is more graceful, and the blossom just as lovely as the cultivated morning-glory, and all this beauty need not be left behind when you gather the wild flowers which are to make the rooms of your home charming.

While I write this, July 7, there stands on a table in our living-room a tall glass vase, wide at the top and holding plenty of water. It is filled with a mass of wild morning-glory-vines, and there are four new, entirely open, pink and white blossoms while others are just twisting open.

Four days ago, when out for a walk in the country, I gathered the vine by the roadside where it grew in the company of daisies, buttercups, and wild mustard. Lifting themselves up into the light, where the warmth of the morning sun could open the buds and where the leaves could breathe in the fresh air, some of these trailing vines had wound themselves in masses around tall, strong weed-stalks.

I gathered the vines, weed-stalks and all, breaking them off close to the ground; and now these stalks hold most of the vines upright in the vase, while other sprays droop gracefully over the edge and hang down almost to the table-top. Only one or two flowers were in bloom when I found the vines, but there were quantities of green buds which I hoped would open later, and that is just what they are doing. It is like having wild flowers growing in one's window. And as for decoration, nothing can be more beautiful ([Fig. 45]).

Trailing vines always make pretty decorations, and many wild ones keep fresh a long while when given plenty of water. Some have flowers, some have not, but in any case they are worth gathering when you have large vases to fill.

The Wild Balsam-Apple

or as some people call it, the wild cucumber, is very decorative. That means it has beautiful curves and twists, and its small, white flowers, prickly, egg-shaped fruit, and long tendrils twisted spirally, like a steel watch-spring let loose, make us love to look at it. The leaves are pretty, too, being shaped almost like a five-pointed star. Sometimes this vine is cultivated and you will find it trained up on strings to shade the porch, or over the kitchen-door of a farmhouse. Wherever you find it, it is beautiful. A large jar filled with sprays of the wild balsam makes a good centrepiece for the table, or a tall vase holding some upright and some drooping sprays looks very pretty when placed near a window where the light will fall on it. Do not mix other flowers with it, its own blossoms are sufficient.

Wild Clematis

The wild clematis is another beautiful vine, and you will find it clambering over fences and bushes along the country road. Its masses of white flowers fill the air with a sweet, spicy perfume that delights you.

You can gather the clematis when it is in blossom, and keep it fresh in water for some time if you put it in root ends down. This vine does not wilt as you carry it. Later in the season, when the white flowers have turned into balls of silvery fringe, the vine is lovely in a different way. Then you can gather great armfuls and take it home to hang over mirrors or picture-frames, letting it become quite dry. It is best to strip the leaves off the sprays at first because they are not beautiful when dry. In a day or two after hanging up your clematis the balls of fringe will become a mass of soft down which will cling to the vine for many weeks. Later, when it becomes dusty, take it down.

Bittersweet

Then there is bittersweet, another wild vine that we gather in the fall. It covers fences and bushes as the clematis does, but instead of turning into fringe balls its small, creamy white flowers become bunches of berries.

The berries are yellow at first; when ripe they split open and curl back to show the brilliant red seeds inside that look like coral beads.

Gather the bittersweet while the berries are yellow, strip off the green leaves, and hang the vine up dry or put it in a large vase without water. Then the berries will open and last all winter.

Snapdragon and Wild Carrot

Both of these are pretty flowers and worth gathering. The snapdragon (perhaps you call it butter-and-eggs) does not mind at all where it grows. Field, roadside, or even the village streets may be its home, but wherever it lives, it makes the spot shine joyously with its stalks of yellow blossoms. Snapdragons combine well with the wild carrot, whose other name is Queen Anne's lace, and together they make a delicate and beautiful bouquet.

If you have a large glass fish-globe fill it with fresh water, and put in the snapdragon and wild carrot in a loose bouquet. Nothing could be prettier for the August lunch-table than this.

Wild Roses

look best in a low glass bowl, for they have no stems to speak of. Short-stemmed flowers do not belong in tall vases. The roses wilt quickly out of water and should have plenty of it.

Do not put any other kind of flowers in the bowl; the roses won't like it; neither will you when you see how much better they look by themselves.

Daisies and Buttercups

so friendly in the fields, look pretty when arranged in a deep jar together, but I would not mix daisies with any other flowers, unless it is the lacy wild carrot. Buttercups look well with the carrot, too, and buttercups look pretty mixed with grasses. You see they all know each other very well, growing in the fields together.

The Wild Flag, or Iris

whose home is along the banks of ponds and small streams, should be put into a tall clear glass vase or pitcher, where its stems will show through, that it may look its best.

There is the yellow iris, the white and the purple, and they are very beautiful when combined but not crowded. Always put some of the long-spiked leaves in with the flowers.

Clover Bouquets

Clover bouquets make delightful centrepieces for the table. Arranged loosely with its own green foliage, the rose-colored clover is especially beautiful in a clear, green glass bowl of water. The sprays should be brought over the edges of the bowl, and allowed to droop down, resting partly on the table.

Yellow clover and its foliage mingled with white clover makes a charming combination as a bouquet for almost any occasion. The name of the yellow clover is hop-clover. It is not as common as the other kinds.

Green Bouquets

When there are no flowers to be had you can have bouquets and centrepieces of green leaves, ferns, and vines, and you will be surprised to find what pretty ones can be arranged and how much they will be admired.

Ferns will wither soon unless taken up with the roots and the soil surrounding them; but if they have the roots and soil they will last a long while, provided you put them in a bowl or jar and keep them always wet. That does not mean to water them as you would any other growing plant, but to keep them standing in water all the time. Maidenhair-fern kept in this way makes a delicate and beautiful centrepiece for the table.

Sometimes you will find varieties of foliage that are full of color. In early summer the young leaves of the scrub-oak are very brilliant in reds and yellows, and I have made bouquets of nothing but leaves from the rose-bushes. These are often tinged with red and purple. Sprays of the barberry-bush with its rows of dangling red berries are pretty in a green bowl. Be careful of the thorns when you gather this. Cut the stems; do not try to break them.

PART II
GRASSES

CHAPTER VIII
FAIRY-TREES MADE OF GRASSES

Some of our grasses appear like very large trees to the little grass fairies who, we like to pretend, hide in their midst; while other grasses, with their jointed, bamboo-like stems, seem to these tiny people to be tall forests of real bamboo.

Why not play that you are a little fairy and live among the grasses? But to see the grasses as the fairies see them you must lie down and bring your eyes very near the ground; so stretch yourself out flat, face down, with your head lower than the grass tops; then look steadily ahead through the tall grass stems. What do you see?

The five fairy-trees standing by themselves in [Fig. 46] are four short-stemmed tops of the Scribner's panic-grass. [Fig. 47] shows exactly how the grass looks before you pick it, and [Fig. 48] gives a simple design that you can make by placing the tips of the four grass tops together, allowing the stems of two heads to lie in a straight horizontal line (that means a line running from left to right), and the stems of the other two heads to lie in a straight line vertically (that means up and down).

Fig.46 - Trees of Scribner's Panic-Grass.

While you are playing with the grasses you can begin to learn something about them. The beard-grass, which some people call the little blue-stem ([Fig. 49]), has near relatives named forked beard-grass and bushy beard-grass. These are stiff and angular, with bamboo-like stems, just the thing for trees in a little Japanese garden which some time you will want to make. You may run across them anywhere, for they are common in all parts of our country.