The blossom has a calyx That is very often green, And just above the sepals The corolla bright is seen. And above the pretty petals May be stamens eight or nine-- Slender filaments, and anthers, To hold the pollen fine. While in the blossom's center Doth the sturdy pistil grow, With stigma and with style that lead To seed-cups just below. HOW PLANTS INCREASE From seed and from runner, from stolon bent low-- From sucker and slip and from layer they grow-- From bulb and from bulblet--from tuber and root, They give us the flower and the grain and the fruit. All thanks to the plants for the clothes that we wear-- The food that we eat and the home that we share-- For the air that we breathe and the fuel we burn-- All thanks to the plants, 'tis our only return. Davy rather objected to the last line of these verses. He said that it was some return to take good care of plants, especially in the hot summer-time, when it was ever so much nicer to sit in the shade. So another little rhyme was made, like this: A plant should have the sun and air And water, and the proper care. If it has these, and doesn't die, We'll reap the harvest, by and by. Then to end the day they all sang a little song about the snowflakes, that Jack Frost sends out of his gardens of winter-time: THE SNOWFLAKES Jack Frost, he makes the snowflakes, He paints the snowflakes white. He sent them Christmas morning To make our landscape bright. For in the deepest winter The world is bleak and bare-- Jack Frost, he sends the snowflakes To make our winter fair. And so ends the story of a year, and of its little gardens. Also of Prue and Davy, who owned the little gardens, and of her who was called big Prue and of him who was called the Chief Gardener. Other years will bring other gardens, and other summers. Prue and Davy will grow older, and learn more and more with each year that passes. But no year will ever be happier and no gardens ever brighter than those to which we are now saying good-by. * * * * * Transcriber's Notes Minor punctuation errors corrected on pages 16, 68, 104, 105, 214, 219, 276, 285, 294, 297, 328. Slight discrepancies in some of the titles given in the Table of Contents and those given at the beginning of each section have been retained here. Original spellings and hyphenation have been retained except in the cases of these apparent typographical errors: Page 23, "lovelly" changed to "lovely." (I never saw anything so lovely...) Page 60, "no" changed to "not." (...not to look at their garden...) End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Little Garden Calendar for Boys and Girls, by Albert Bigelow Paine