mistake about the time, when if it be not night it ought to be, but
regularly as the evening hours approach, and when a midnight sun is
several degrees above the horizon, they droop their leaves, and sleep
even as they do at sunset in more favoured climes." Look at the
bright scarlet flower, with its small purple eye. Excepting poppies,
with their dazzling brightness, I do not think there is another wild
flower that has scarlet petals. However, the blossoms are not always
scarlet; there is a white variety with a purple eye, and another
having a dark blue blossom.

[Illustration: SCARLET PIMPERNEL.]

Well, Jack, you have found something, have you? Ah! this is a queer
plant, it has queer habits, and a queer name; it is called
"Jack-go-to-bed at noon." We sometimes call you after the name of
another plant, "Jack-by-the-hedge." May, of course, is "May," or
hawthorn blossom, and Robin at home, from his often tearing his
clothes, is "Ragged Robin." Another name for the plant you hold in
your hand is goat's beard; the leaves are long and grass-like, the
flowers bright yellow; it is not yet quite eleven o'clock, and the
blossoms are expanded; they generally close about noon. Look at the
colour of the stem, it has a kind of sea-green bloom upon it. Well,
you would never find this plant with blossom expanded in the
afternoon; so "Jack-go-to-bed at noon" is really not a bad name for
it.

"And goodly now the noon-tide hour
When from his high meridian tower
The sun looks down in majesty.
What time about the grassy lea
The goat's-beard prompt his rise to hail
With broad expanded disc, in veil
Close mantling wraps its yellow head,
And goes, as peasants say, to bed."

Here we are at a stream; do you see those things at the bottom slowly
moving? They seem to be bits of stick. "I know what they are," said
Jack, "there is a good fat maggot in each of these cases; they are
caddis-worms." Quite right, and in time they will change to insects.
Here is another kind; the house is made of small bits of gravel, and
it is attached to this smooth stone. I will break open the case; do
you see inside is a long cylindrical case, with a thin covering; I
slit this open with my penknife, and now you see the creature inside.
There are a great variety of these caddis-worms, and most interesting
it is to notice the different kind of houses they build. Some of the
larvae live in movable cases, as we have seen, some in