e plan of
nature would fall through and there would soon be no life on earth."

Elsie's eyes looked very large when she heard this.

"Would I die, and you, mamma, and all of us--Alice and Rosie, and, oh,
everybody we know?"

"Yes, dearie, all of us. Those few simple plants which still, in the
primitive way, fertilize themselves, are not enough and are too weak
to carry on the vegetation of the earth, and without the insects and
birds and the wind we never should have been born at all; for they are
necessary to make the plants reproduce their kinds and grow, and the
plants are necessary food for us as well as for the animals that we
eat, such as the hens and ducks and sheep and cows. So nature has
given each flower only a little honey, not enough for the bee, and he
is compelled to fly to many before he becomes satisfied. And this
brings us back to the stamen and ovary again, to show what they are
for and how the bee marries the two plants together after he has
collected his fee of delicious honey."

"I am all 'tention," said Elsie, in so quaint an imitation of older
folks that her mother was forced to smile, knowing that she had a
listener that was interested, to say the least--a listener who felt
the importance and gravity of the study which they were now pursuing.
Elsie never attempted big words except when she felt dignified.

IV

THE PAPA AND MAMMA PARTS OF THE PLANTS

"Now," said Mrs. Edson, taking hold of the buttercup again, "you see
here, at the top of each stamen, the slight enlargement that I
mentioned. It looks like a kind of knob, and it really is a hard,
hollow sack, or bag, containing a fine yellow powder, which is called
pollen. Is that plain so far, dearie?"

"Pollen, yes, mamma! And do you wish me to remember that name too?"

"Yes, it is very necessary that you should do so. You will soon learn
why. Now look again at the green ovary. That is also hollow, and
contains seeds or eggs, as I said before. In plants we call them
seeds and in animals eggs. And it is these seeds that grow into the
baby plants. But they cannot grow alone, without help. With a certain
kind of help they can and do grow, and what do you suppose that help
is?"

Elsie gazed earnestly at her mother, trying to think it out. But she
was compelled to shake her head after all.

"I can't imagine," she said.

"Nothing but that some of the pollen shall be mixed with them," said
her mother.

"Oh, I see, I see!" Elsie