A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR [Illustration] A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR _For Boys and Girls_ by ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE _Author of "The Little Lady, Her Book," "The Arkansaw Bear," Etc._ WITH FORTY-SIX ILLUSTRATIONS PHILADELPHIA HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY _Copyright, 1905, by Henry Altemus Published March, 1905_ BY THE SAME AUTHOR The Little Lady, Her Book, $1.00 The Arkansaw Bear, 1.00 The Wanderings of Joe and Little Em, .50 A WORD TO TEACHERS AND PARENTS WHEN Dr. S. P. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, established the Children's Room in that great museum, he took for his motto, "Knowledge begins in wonder," and he put into this room a selection of specimens especially intended to excite interest in the young mind. The biggest bird and the littlest were placed side by side; curious eggs, nests, and insects--not many in number, but temptingly displayed--were ranged about to attract attention and to awake the desire to know more. It was the same Dr. Langley who had once declared that his chief interests in life were children and fairy stories, and it is in the little Washington room that we seem to find the thought embodied, for the children are there, and the fairy stories of nature are suggested on every hand. It is with Dr. Langley's motto in mind that the "Little Garden Calendar" is offered to parents and teachers, and to children themselves who are old enough to read. The author has tried to tell in simple language a few of the wonders of plant life, and to set down certain easy methods of observation, including planting, tending, and gathering the harvests, from month to month, throughout the year. Along with this it has been his aim to call attention to the more curious characteristics of certain plants--the really human instincts and habits of some, the family relations of others, the dependence of many upon mankind, animals, and insects, and the struggle for existence of all. Simple botany plays a part in the little narrative, which forms a continuous story from chapter to chapter, interwoven with a number of briefer stories--traditions, fairy tales, and the like, all relating to plant life and origin. These are presented by way of entertainment--to illuminate fact with fancy--to follow, as it were, the path of knowledge through the garden of imagination.