When you make burr baskets out of the sticky burdock seeds, unless you burn them, you are helping the burdocks to travel. _Pods which Shoot Seeds_ The mother plants of the “spider plant,” and of the pansy, and of the violet send their seed babies to new homes by using seed pods which burst open and shoot the seeds far and wide in all directions. _Tumble Weeds_ Some mother plants actually carry their seed babies to new places. The “tumble weeds” of the West dry up in Autumn, and are broken off near the roots by the wind, which carries them along over field and meadow; and everywhere they go, they are dropping seed babies in new places. If you watch them as they tumble about you will feel like laughing at their comical appearance. Now we have come to the fairy seed babies, the— _Seed Babies with Wings_ You’ve seen them often—seed babies flying about on the wings which their plant-mother gave them. Sometimes you have helped them start to fly. Oh, yes, you have. Don’t you remember when you pulled the fluffy head off a dandelion, and blew it to “see what time it was?” Of course you didn’t know it, but you sent scores of dandelion seed babies floating off in the air on their fairy wings. Perhaps the wind took one up where you left off blowing, and landed it such a distance away from its old home that it might have seemed like hundreds of miles to the little thing. Milk-weed seed babies fastened to their beautiful silky down, which is so light it floats along like a fairy’s feather, actually travel on the “wings of the wind.” Some trees, too, give their seed babies wings. Haven’t the winged seeds of the maple fooled you into thinking they were birds or insects of some kind? It has amused you, too, to notice how far the wings of these seed babies have carried them on the wind. “Haven’t the plant mothers provided wonderfully for their seed babies’ welfare!” exclaimed Mary Frances. “Yes,” replied Bet; “back of the plant mother is another mother—Mother Nature. Oh, but she is wise!” CHAPTER XLVII HAVE A SEAT ON A TOAD STOOL “MOTHER NATURE has taught plant mothers many secrets as to how to take care of their babies,” Bet continued, “but perhaps her most amusing trick is the wrapping of certain seed babies in seed cases which look like worms or bugs. Did you ever notice the seeds of the castor oil plant?” “They look exactly like bugs!” Mary Frances exclaimed. “Almost,” Bet nodded; “probably to make some bird think it’s going to have a fine meal. When the seed has been carried a little distance, the bird will discover its mistake, and drop the seed baby in a new home.” “What a cunning trick!” exclaimed Eleanor.