The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1882-03-17

Independent
''BefOre 10 Crew.,
"This acorn's all broken frew at the
top said Harry Marling, as he watched
and helped his sister Hepsy unpack
her basket from the woods.
80 Harry, be careful !" exclaimed
Hepsy, as his little fingers were busy
with queer-looking acorn. "Be care
full Broken frewl guess it is. Lay
it right down this minute !"
"Hepsy u said gentle voice, and
Hepsy blushed when she saw her moth
or was watching them.
"Well, he may have as many whole
acorns as he wants, but the broken
frew' ones are sprouted ones, and they'll
grow! They're all started now !"
Hepsy took the sprouted nut, and
handed it to her mother, and Mrs. Mar
ling explain what was new to Harry, and
new once to every little boy and girl,
how there was something hidden inside
of every acorn and chestnut, and every
tiny seed something which makes it
very different from a pebble, or a bit of
coal, or anything else; little secret
life which works away, Juggling and
pushing right through the highest,
hardest walls that ever seed or a nut
built up.
$50 tender, too" said Hepsy. "This
little white finger, l don't see how it ever
got through the she'll"
"That little finger Is the 'plumule,'
or part which will grow and unfold into
leaves, and after while into the oak
tree"
"What makes the push inside ?"
asked Harry.
cit must be God," said Hepsy,
thoughtfully. No person can do it.
They can make acorns that look like this;
there's SOME on my hat, you know;
but they'll never have 'plumule ,"
Harry, picking up Hepsy's hat and
rubbing his finger over one of the
smooth acorns hid among the oak leaves,
echoes
Never have a poomool! wouldn't
have acorns on my hat that wouldn't
come to life "
Is this a plumule, too ?" asked Hep
sy, touching white I" finger" at the
other end of the nut.
"Not unless you expect to have two
trees from one NUT" said Der mother.
"That makes the root, which is to go
down deep in the ground and hold the
tree firmly in its place. 1t is called the
'radicle.' Perhaps you can remember
these two words, and take them for your
FIRST lesson in botany"
"Does every seed in the world have
these two things when it grows? ?" asked
Harry.
Yes one to go down and one to go
zp. You won't forget that ,"
And did every tree and every flower
that ever was come out from the seed,
top and bottom, like this?" inquired
Harry.
"Now, I can answer that, and tell
you very strange thing" said their
mother. "Once, O great while ago,
there were some trees-a great many OF
them, too-that didn't come out of q
seed in that way. In fact, they didn't
come out of a seed at all.
"That's fairy story" said Hepsy.
"No, it's true story. have read
about them, and 1 am sure that it is
true"
"What sort of trees were they?"
" A great many sorts. Some oaks, no
doubt, and some pines and sycamores
and orange trees and olive trees"
ooh, but there must have been an
orange or sycamore ball first, mother"
"Yes, if this had not been, as I told
you it was, very strange and wonderful
thing. Indeed, SO wonderful that it has
never happened but once"
"Tell us about it," said Hepsy.
81 have told you pretty nearly all l
know about it, except that no rain had
helped those trees to grow, not even one
shower had fallen on them, and no man
had ever planted one OF them, nor taken
the least care of them. If you would
like to read the story you may. You
can read it in one minute for yourself"
"Where is it ?" asked Hepsy.
"Bring me your Bible" said her
mother, "and will show you"
Hepsy brought her Bible and her
mother turned to its first page and
pointed to one verse for her to read.
1t was the fifth chapter of Genesis. Harry
listened eugerly while Hepsy read.
"And every plant of the field before
it was in the earth, and every herb OF
the field before it grew; for the Lord
God had not caused il to rain upon the
earth, and there was not man to till
the ground.
"How strange to think all the trees
grew all over everywhere, and nobody
had planted Them" said Hepsy.
"Just made, WHOLE" said Harry.
"That is all we can say about it, '
said their mother, "and yet, wonderful
as these things are, 'and every herb Of
the field before it grew do not know
IL was auy more strange than the way
they grow now, starting from the little
seeds. AS Hepsy said, God does it.
Man with all his Inventions, and wonder.
full insight into mysteries, cannot make
one little acorn, with what Harry calls the
push inside. Only He who first made
the whole trees can ever do that"
How a Little Girl Suggested the In
| vention Of tho telescope.
/