“All your money will be gone with the rest of your losses. The pennies, dimes, dollars, are made of metals. Metals come from rocks that are found in the earth,” I said. “Also, all the dishes in your house are made of clay and metal. You would have to lose them. All your furniture is of wood, metal, and leather, you would have to lose that. But you would soon starve without food. So it makes little matter what else you lose.” “I should sit on the sea-shore, and catch fish to eat!” cried the small boy. “You must then catch them without hook, net, or line. But let us begin on the fish, and take away all that feed on sea plants. Next let us take away all that feed on fish that have fed on plant-life. Soon you will be in a sad way for fish to catch.” “So all that we have comes from the earth?” “Yes. The earth is a great treasure box, out of which come all things which we see about us. It is for this reason that we say, ‘Mother Earth.’ In old times people said the earth was the great mother of all things. So do not speak with scorn of that dirt, which is ‘the earth’s top-crust.’ What would you _have_ without it? “What would you _be_ without it? Your flesh, blood, bones, are built up of what you eat and drink. If all the things that come out of the earth were taken from you, you would soon perish. “Just now you found that you would have no house to live in, and no clothes to wear. So, soon your mind and soul would have no body-house to live in; no flesh-clothes to wear. Every part of you, except the mind and soul part, comes from the earth. “When we look at the earth that which we first notice is the plant, or vegetable. By plants we mean the trees, grasses, and other things, which grow out of the soil. Plants are Mother Earth’s first children. “Beside the plants which grow in the soil, there are plants which are called air-plants, because they grow in the air. Also there are plants which grow in water. These are called water, or aquatic plants.” We will now have some lessons on plant-life. LESSON II. THE EARTH’S ELDEST CHILD. Perhaps you have looked at the books of some of the elder pupils in your school. Did you see one marked “_Botany_”? Did you see in it pictures of flowers, and parts of flowers? Botany is the study of plants. These lessons in your Nature Reader are not to teach you botany. They are only to tell you some of the curious things about plants. When you read these lessons, you will like plants, not only because they are so very pretty and useful, but because of the wonders of the plant-world. I shall tell you some of the secrets of the wonder-world of plants. Then I hope you will wish to find out more of the secrets for yourselves. I once asked Tom, “What is a plant?” “A plant!” cried Tom, “oh, a plant is--a potato, a turnip;” and off he went, quite satisfied with his answer. He was content, because he knew so little. If he had known more, his answer would not have suited him so well.