, and here now we
are in close contact with the babies themselves--the kernels--and to
each little kernel or baby corn we find mamma closely clinging. Here
is a beautiful opportunity to teach mother-love and mother
watchfulness, as also the opportunity to draw lessons from the baby
kernels sitting there in even rows, with their faces clean, silently
contented--just doing their duty. The stories that may be told are
limitless, and possibly as interesting as are the myths and
fairy-tales, yet all the while as true as truth itself, with no
fakery, no legends--just simple truth.

THE ALL IMPORTANT POLLEN

Now on a second trip into the cornfield, another story may be told of
the important work of the pollen. This "father part" of the plant
falls upon the silken tresses of the "mother part," by which the
pollen is carried down to the sleeping corn-baby seeds--the kernels.
And when the "corn dust" does reach the sleeping seeds a great change
begins to take place. This change is known to the adult as
"impregnation;" to the little child it may be presented as "an
awakening" of the sleeping seeds, so that they begin to grow, to
develop, to expand and push out, until we have the full-grown seeds
seen in the delicious and juicy roasting ear.

Sometimes, in the case of the larger plants and trees, Father Tree may
be miles and miles away from Mother Tree and so this all important
pollen must be carried by the wind or by the bees, and as it blows
against the mother part of the plant-flower she catches it and pushes
it downward to the seed babies. The wind scatters the pollen of the
oak tree, the hazlenut, the walnut, the birch, the willow and many
others; for, without the good kind wind or the bees, the pollen would
never find its way to many a mother flower, and the "fertilization" of
the seed could not take place.

THE MORNING GLORY FAMILY

Perhaps the story of life can be told as beautifully from the
morning-glory as from any other flower. Here the beautiful flower cup
is the home of Father and Mother Morning-Glory and all their little
babies. (See Fig. 18).

As we carefully take away their little home, the flower cup, we have
left a little green cup, and coming up from the center you will see
five little stems, every one of them wearing a hat of powder or pollen
and this--if you please--is Papa Morning-Glory. Look closely and you
will see coming up from the center of these five stems (stamens) one
central stalk withou