While they are meant for the children six years of age and upward, it is assumed that Mother (or Father) will be active as a leader; therefore it is addressed, first of all, to the parent, whom throughout we shall call the "Guide." * * * * * Some of these stories date back to my school days, although the first actually published was "Why the Chicadee Goes Crazy Twice a Year." This in its original form appeared in "Our Animal Friends" in September, 1893. Others, as "The Fingerboard Goldenrod," "Brook-Brownie," "The Bluebird," "Diablo and the Dogwood," "How the Violets Came," "How the Indian Summer Came," "The Twin Stars," "The Fairy Lamps," "How the Littlest Owl Came," "How the Shad Came," appeared in slightly different form in the _Century Magazine_, 1903 and 1904. * * * * * My thanks are due to the Authorities of the American Museum who have helped me with specimens and criticism; to the published writings of Dr. W. J. Holland and Clarence M. Weed for guidance in insect problems; to Britton and Browne's "Illustrated Flora, U. S. and Canada"; and to the Nature Library of Doubleday, Page & Co., for light in matters botanic; to Mrs. Daphne Drake and Mrs. Mary S. Dominick for many valuable suggestions, and to my wife, Grace Gallatin Seton, for help with the purely literary work. Also to Oliver P. Medsger, the naturalist of Lincoln High School, Jersey City, N. J., for reading with critical care those parts of the manuscript that deal with flowers and insects, as well as for the ballad of the Ox-eye, the story of its coming to America, and the photograph of the Mecha-meck. CONTENTS Things to See in Springtime _The Seeing Eye_ TALE NO. PAGE 1. Blue-eyes, the Snow-child, or the Story of Hepatica 3 2. The Story of the Dawnsinger, or How the Bloodroot Came 5 3. The Prairie-girl with Yellow Hair 6 4. The Cat's-eye Toad, a child of Maka Ina 11 5. How the Bluebird Came 14 6. Robin, the Bird that Loves to Make Clay Pots 17 7. Brook Brownie, or How the Song Sparrow Got his Streaks 20 8. Diablo and the Dogwood 20 9. The Woolly-bear 23 10. How the Violets Came 25 11. Cocoons 26 12. Butterflies and Moths 28 13. The Mourning-cloak Butterfly or the Camberwell Beauty 30 14. The Wandering Monarch 32 15. The Bells of the Solomon Seal 35 16. The Silver Bells of the False Solomon Seal 37