The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1895-05-18
FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.
INTERESTING READING FOR THE
YOUNG PEOPLE,. z

| YOUNG PEOPLE,. a
| One I Love, Two 1 Love-A Boys Red
Hot Fun, He and His "Gang" Play
| ed Firemen to Their Hearts Com
| Mouse.
The dandelion was one of the earl
lest flowers to stir the children's MEM
ories-memories which had lain dor
mant all winter; in New England it is
"the firstling Of the year." In the days:
Of my childhood we did not wait for
the buttercup to open, to learn wheth-
er we 1oved butter;;" the soft, dimpled
chin Of each child was held up, as had
been those of other children for past
decades, to catch the yellow reflection
of the first dandelion on the pinky
throat.
Dear common flower, that grow'st
beside the way, !
Fringing the dusty road with harm
less gold, +
First pledge Of blithesome May,
Which children pluck, and full Of
pride, uphold.
The dandelion had other charms for
the child. When the bloom had grown
long-stemmed through seeking the
sun from under the dense box borders,
what pale green curls could be made
by splitting the stems and immerSing
them in water or by placing them in
the mouth! I taste still their, bitter
ness! What grace these curls confer
red when fastened to our round combs
or hung over our straight braids!-
far better than locks of corn silk.
And what adorning necklaces and
chains could be made by stringing
"dandelion beads" formed by cutting
the stems into sections!
When the dandelion had lost her
golden locks and had grown old and
gray, the children still plucked the
downy heads, the "clocks," or blow
balls and holding them by the long
Stems which bare aloft these airy seed
vessels. and fortifying the strong.
young lungs with a deep breath. they
blew upon the head ''to see whether
my mother wants me- or to learn the
time of day.
Dandelion the globe of down.
The Schoolboy's clock in every town,
Which the truant puffs amain
10 conjure back long hours again.
The ox-eyed daisy, the farmers hat
ed white weed, brought to New Eng
land by Endicott as a garden flower
soon followed the dandelion in bloom,
and fresh necklace could be strung
from the starry blossoms, a daisy
chain. The daisy was also used as
medium Of ainatory divination by
pulling from the floret the white ray
flowers, saying. HE loves me, he
loves me not" or by repeating the old
apple rhyme:
One I love,
Two l love. ~a.
Three love, I say;
-Four love with all my heart,
Five [ cast away, etc.
The yellow disk, or "button'' which
was formed by stripping off the white
rays made pretty pumpkin pie for
the dolls table. A very effective and
bilious old lady, OF daisy grandmoth-
err was made by clipping off the
rays to shape the ruff1e or border of a
cap, leaving two long rays for strings
and marking in a grotesque old face
with pen and ink. A dusky face, call
ed with childish plainness of speech
a "nlgger head,' could be made in like
fashion from the "black-eyed Susan
or yellow daisy" the Rudbeckia hirta
which now rivals the ox-eyed daisy
as pest of the New England farm
er.
Though the spring violets were dear
| loved c1o orb
ly by Fighting roosters'' with them.
The projecting spur under the curve
stem at the base Of the flower was q
hook, and when the violets "clinch-
ed'' we pulled till the stronger was
conqueror. Sometimes a tough-ste1n-
med violet would decapitate a score
of it's fellows
What braided "cat-ladders'' and
quaint medieval shaped boats with
swelling lateen sail and pennant of
striped grass. could be made from the
flat, sword-like leaves of the f1ower-de
luce! And the dicentra, or "dIelvtra'
(bleeding heart, or lady's eardrops, we
called it, had long, gracefully droop-
ing racemes of bright, red-pink flow
ers, which. when pulled apart and
Strengthened out. made fairy gon,1olas;
or which might I've twisted into Il harp
aud bottle: How many scores have I
carefully dissected trying to preserve
intact In skeleton shape the little
heart-shaped frame of the delicate
flower!
Ihere was a certain garden lore
connected with insects, not so varied
or extensive, probably, as child
would have upon a farm. We said to
the snail:
Snail, snail, come out of your hole,
Or else will beat you black as a coal.
We sang to the lady-bug-
Lady-bug, lady-bug, fly away home;
Your house is on fire, your children
will burn
We caught the grasshoppers and
thus exhorted them