The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1886-02-03

There's funny grass sver there; faint
so funny now; faint out yet, but bimeby
it'll have long, big heads Ii is all furry with
ODg hairs, and in the fall it turns Just as
white, AVID you will see white, foggy spots all
oyer your pastures, and the heads sometimes
break off and go a-blOwin round like big
lunches o. feathers (Old witch grass of
course, / thought, Panicum capillare.l
But went on wide awake, ''Oh, lady,
there's the cutest little grass nobody knows
but me, and Jest love il. It's a little bit of
soft, imbery thing, looks something like
baby meadOw-grass, and it schroOches down
close to the ground, and"-hesitating a min
ute and looking doUbtfully at me-"it's,
well, as Irue's | live and breathe, it likes
folks.'
What do you mean by that?'
why it Jest follows folks about II comes
all round the doorsteps and where we walk.
If you have just one way cross the field and
take il every time, that little chap comes up
there and stays. He's in the path 10 the
well, and he's in the place where us boys
play ball; and he's all along the little place
behind the house where we draw baby up
little Teller and call him folksy grass" Do
not some of you recognize low or early
meadow grass, Poa Annua?
Much, much more did my young farmer
tell me. All the flowers, plants, trees, grasses,
sedges were his playmates and close friends.
Could years of city life, with its museums
and grand shows, have taught him such les
sons and in such pleasant way?
Open your eyes. Learn by sight every
thing that grows about you; know the plants
as they first send up their little tender leaves
in the spring, as they grow, and leaf, and
branch, and bud, and flower; know their
roots and their seeds, their solid ahd hollow
stems, their sticky or bristly, rough or
smooth feel; their pleasant or disagreeable
smell; their bitter or sour or Puckery, or
hot or smart taste; their pale or deep, or dull
or bright color; know them each and all.
and thoroughly, or be heartily ashamed of
your ignorance.
Even in winter, and when the snow is on
the ground, you can lind new and strange
things If you look for them. The little mos
Ses on the rocks or tree trunks on the fallen
logs and old stone walls, bear their fruit in
winter chiefly; and if you look closely you
will see, rising from among the soft green
plush or grayisb velvet, a slender, hair-like
stem with tiny fruit scarce larger than pins
head. sometimes covered with a fairy cap of
white fur or smooth white satin. Try care
fully and you can pull off the cap and see
underneath the shining red or brown, or
green fruit. Many OF the ferns keep green
and shining through the winter, and so do
the Wintergreen, the Princess Pine, some OF
the leaves of the Llverwort, and many other
things which you might learn to know well.
Or you might have q little winter garden in
DOORS a box of rich earth from the woods
either with or without glass shade over it;
any quick-witted farmers boy or girl could
plan one. This you could fill in the fall or
early winter with ferns and moses, and
berry-cOvered vines, with violet and liver
wort and anemone roots, and so have through
the long New England winter bit of the
summer woods in your own house, and long
before the little outdoor friends show their
bright faces your sheltered sleepers would
wake up and peer out at you.