Little brook, little brook, You have such a happy look, Such a very merry manner as you swerve and curve and crook; And your ripples, one by one, Reach each other's hands and run Like laughing little children in the sun! Little brook, sing to me, Sing about a bumble-bee That tumbled from a lily-bell and mumbled grumblingly Because he wet the film Of his wings and had to swim, While the water bugs raced round and laughed at him. Little brook, sing a song Of a leaf that sailed along Down the golden braided center of your current swift and strong, And the dragon-fly that lit On the tilting rim of it, And sailed away, and wasn't scared a bit! And sing how oft in glee Came a truant boy like me Who loved to lean and listen to your lilting melody, Till the gurgle and refrain Of your music in his brain Caused a happiness as deep to him as pain! Little brook, laugh and leap! Do not let the dreamer weep; Sing him all the songs of summer till he sink in softest sleep; And then sing soft and low Through his dreams of long ago, Sing back to him the rest he used to know. --_Anon._ [Illustration: BLOOD-ROOT. BY PER. HARRIET E. HIGLEY. A. W. MUMFORD, PUBLISHER, CHICAGO. COPYRIGHT 1900, BY NATURE STUDY PUB. CO., CHICAGO.] THE BLOOD-ROOT. WILLIAM KERR HIGLEY, Secretary of the Chicago Academy of Sciences. Thou first-born of the year's delight, Pride of the dewy glade, In vernal green and virgin white, Thy vestal robes arrayed. --_Keble._ The true lover of flowers, though he may be enraptured by those under cultivation, finds a greater satisfaction in the study and observation of those that are developed only under the influence of Nature's laws. In the field, the forest, and even in the sea there are plants not only pleasing to the eye, but that are doubly interesting because of the wonderful provision made for them to assure their survival. Plants, like animals, have their enemies, and sometimes it seems that, with thoughtful care for its own protection, a species will gradually change its habits, thus conveying a sense of danger to its descendants. Many of the peculiarities of plants, that fit them for existence, may be readily studied by the novice in botany as he tramps the fields in search of recreation. There is nothing more delightful and charming to the botanist than to seek the reasons for the beauties in Nature and to find why plants live and exist as they do.