When you go into the garden where a big sunflower (Fig. 275) is trying to peep into your neighbor’s yard, I hope your eyes will be sharp enough to see that this sunflower is a cousin to the field daisy, and that, although its brown center is much larger than the daisy’s golden eyes, it is made up of tube flowers (Fig. 276) shaped much like the tube flowers of the daisy. And you will notice, I am sure, that the yellow circle about this brown center is made up of strap flowers (Fig. 277) just like the circle about the daisy center. [Illustration: FIG. 275] And what is that which falls like a golden shower from the great brown center of the sunflower? Ah, you know well that that is the precious pollen which powders thickly the visiting bees and butterflies, and goes to make new sunflower plants. [Illustration: FIG. 276] The picture at the head of this chapter shows the wild sister of the garden sunflower. When you come across the bright blue flower of the chicory, you will be reminded, I hope, of your dear old friend the dandelion; for the chicory head, like that of the dandelion, is made up entirely of strap flowers. But when you pick a spray of everlasting, whose white and yellow clusters you find on the rocky hillsides, you will have to use your eyes with great care if you are to discover that here, as in the great purple thistle head, are nothing but tube flowers. [Illustration: FIG. 277] PART VII—LEARNING TO SEE [Illustration: Flowers] A BAD HABIT In fact, if you are to see any of the things that are really worth seeing, you must study the art of using your eyes. You must _learn to see_. This world is full of things that are beautiful and interesting, things that do not cost money, that can be had for the seeing. School is nearly over now, and during the weeks that lie before you there will be many hours which you children can call your own. I wonder what you will do with these holiday hours? Of course, you will play a great deal; at least, I hope you will, for we need play almost as much as we need work. But one does not play every minute, even in the holidays. I hope that all of you will spend a part of your holidays in trying to be a little useful to your mothers. But even then there will be some time left for other things,—things that are not work, and that are not exactly play, yet that are a little of each, and so perhaps better than either play or work alone. Among these “other things” I hope “learning to see” will find its place. I wish that every child who reads this book would make a resolution that during these coming holiday weeks he will “learn to see.”