If you doubt this, ask four or five of your playmates to describe the same thing,—some street accident, or a quarrel in the playground, which all have seen, or something of the sort,—and then I think you will understand what I mean by saying that few people see correctly. THE MOST WONDERFUL THING IN THE WORLD It would be quite a simple matter to interest you children in plants and their lives, if always it were possible to talk only about the things which you can see with your own unaided eyes. I think a bright child sees better than many a grown person, and I think that it is easier to interest him in what he sees. And then plants in themselves are so interesting and surprising, that one must be stupid indeed if he or she finds it impossible to take pleasure in watching their ways. But about these plants there are many things which you cannot see without the help of a microscope, and these things it is difficult to describe in simple words. Yet it is necessary to learn about them if you wish really to feel at home in this beautiful world of plants. After all, whatever is worth having is worth taking some trouble for; and nothing worth having can be had without trouble. So I hope when you children come to parts of this book that seem at first a little dull, you will say to yourselves, “Well, if we wish really to know plants, to be able to tell their names, to understand their habits, we must try to be a little patient when we come to the things that are difficult.” For even in your games you boys have to use some patience; and you are quite willing to run the risk of being hurt for the sake of a little fun. And you girls will take no end of trouble if you happen to be sewing for your dolls, or playing at cooking over the kitchen stove, or doing something to which you give the name “play” instead of “work.” I only ask for just as much patience in your study of plants; and I think I can safely promise you that plants will prove delightful playthings long after you have put aside the games which please you now. So we must begin to talk about some of the things which you are not likely to see now with your own eyes, but which, when possible, I will show you by means of pictures, and which, when you are older, some of you may see with the help of a microscope. Every living thing is made up of one or more little objects called “cells.” Usually a cell may be likened to a tiny bag which holds a bit of that material which is the most wonderful thing in the whole world, for this is the material which has _life_. Occasionally a cell is nothing but a naked bit of this wonderful substance, for it is not always held in a tiny bag. [Illustration: FIG. 135] This picture (Fig. 135) shows you a naked plant cell, much magnified, that swims about in the water by means of the two long hairs which grow from one end of the speck of life-giving material.