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A Little Garden Calendar for Boys and Girls
A Little Garden Calendar for Boys and Girls
A Word to Teachers and Parents
When Dr. S. P. Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, established the Children's Room in that great museum, he took for his motto, "Knowledge begins in wonder," and he put into this room a selection of specimens especially intended to excite interest in the young mind. The biggest bird and the littlest were placed side by side; curious eggs, nests, and insects – not many in number, but temptingly displayed – were ranged about to attract attention and to awake the desire to know more. It was the same Dr. Langley who had once declared that his chief interests in life were children and fairy stories, and it is in the little Washington room that we seem to find the thought embodied, for the children are there, and the fairy stories of nature are suggested on every hand.
It is with Dr. Langley's motto in mind that the "Little Garden Calendar" is offered to parents and teachers, and to children themselves who are old enough to read. The author has tried to tell in simple language a few of the wonders of plant life, and to set down certain easy methods of observation, including planting, tending, and gathering the harvests, from month to month, throughout the year. Along with this it has been his aim to call attention to the more curious characteristics of certain plants – the really human instincts and habits of some, the family relations of others, the dependence of many upon mankind, animals, and insects, and the struggle for existence of all. Simple botany plays a part in the little narrative, which forms a continuous story from chapter to chapter, interwoven with a number of briefer stories – traditions, fairy tales, and the like, all relating to plant life and origin. These are presented by way of entertainment – to illuminate fact with fancy – to follow, as it were, the path of knowledge through the garden of imagination.
The illustrations in this book are from excellent photographs – especially made for the various chapters – that the student of plant life may compare and identify with some degree of assurance as to varieties and particular specimens, especially in the matter of plant organisms. The volume is divided according to the calendar, for the reason that in the plant world there is interest for every month in the year if only someone is by to point the way, and it is for this purpose that the little story of Prue and Davy and their garden is offered to instructors in the schoolroom and at home, and to the young people themselves, with the greetings and good wishes of
The Author.
JANUARY
I
YOU MAY BEGIN YOUR GARDEN RIGHT AWAY
THIS is the story of a year, and begins on New Year's day. It is the story of a garden – a little garden – and of a little boy and girl who owned the garden, and of the Chief Gardener, who helped them.
And the name of the little boy was David, after his grandfather. So they called him Davy, because when grandfather was a little boy, he had been called Davy, and this little boy wanted to be just as his grandfather had been – just the same kind of a little boy, with the same name and all.
And the name of the little girl was Prudence, and she was called Prue. For when her mother was a little girl, she had been called Prue, and the Chief Gardener still called her that, sometimes, when he did not call her just Mamma. And the little girl was five years old, and the little boy was 'most seven – "going-on seven" the little boy always said, when you asked him.
The garden was in a window, at first – in two windows, side by side – called a double window. It had to be in a window, because outside it was very cold, and the snow was white and deep on the beds where the Chief Gardener had flowers and vegetables in summer-time.
Prue and Davy were looking out on this white, snow-covered garden on New Year's afternoon. Christmas was over, and spring seemed far away. And there had been so much snow that they were tired of their sleds.
"I wish it would be warm again," said Davy, "so there would be strawberries and nice things to eat in the garden; don't you, Prue?"
"And nice green grass, and dandelions and pinks and morning-glories," said Prue, who loved flowers.
Then the little girl went over to where the Chief Gardener was reading. She leaned over his knee and rocked it back and forth.
"Will it ever be warm again?" she asked. "Will we ever have another garden?"
The Chief Gardener turned another page of his paper. Prue rocked his knee harder.