The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1909-07-09
THE LITTLE PLANT.


a flower garden on the sunny side of
the house, just where all flower gar
dens ought to be. There were packets
of poppy seeds, bachelor-buttons and
yellow daisies to be planted. Mother
had told Hester how the spring rains
had prepared the ground, and how
the sun would keep the little seeds
warm until they sprouted and thrust
their pale green heads up through
the black earth, to grow and grow
into beautiful plants, as told by Ber-
tina 3. Stavert, in the Children's Mag
azipe.
Hester begged few seeds and
place in the garden for her own flow
err bed; and mother lovingly watched
her little girl as she raked the soft
dirt and patted it with her little fat
hands to make it ready for the seeds.
Hester thought it most as much fun
as making mud pies, to dig the shall
low trenches, which, alas, were not
very straight, and sprinkle the tiny
seeds in them. 1t did not seem to
matter bit to her that two or three
sunfower seeds happened to fall into
the poppy row. Fancy the great vel
vety stalks of the sturdy sunfower
growing beside the slender, fairy-like
pop, ies'
Eg ny morning for several days
aftes the planting Hester would hur-
ry around to the side of the house
and search her garden for the first
sign of a tender green shoot. 1t
seemed to the anxious gardener as
if the seeds would never sprout. One
day the fat little fingers dug down
into the soft, warm earth and pulled
out poor baby plant that was al
most ready to come out Of the
ground.
"oh, oh! See what you have
done!" cried the little plant. Boo
it's cold out here! Put me back in
my warm bed, naughty child, or III
freeze to DEATH"
Hester was so frightened that she
made a round hole with her chubby
thumb and stuck the baby plant into
it in a hurry. All day long she
seemed to hear the tender sprout cry
ing with the cold, and when she went
to bed at night she dreamed that the
Dew Fairies were hushing and caring
for the plant baby just as mother
cared for little sister. Hester Knew
that Dew Fairies were real, because
she had felt them kiss her yellow
curls when she played out too long
after tea.
Next morning when she went out
to the garden mother was there be-
fore her.
Come, see all the little green
heads peeping out of the ground"
called mother. "But here is a poor
ilttl4 plant that someone has dis
tuyAe6. 1t looks very weak and pale,
ana 9f It lsvss I am afraid it will be
a little ey!TpIe."
Hester's chin quivered and great
big tears splashSd down the front of
her clean frock.
ooh, you dear little plant baby"
she cried. II didn't mean to hurt
you, and I'll take good care OF you
every day if you will only live--and
please not be cripple"
Then Hester's mother, who knew
what a temptationrit had been to see
how the flowers were growing, took
her little girl in her arms and gently
told her that the earth children must
not interfere with Natures work,
that they must help to make the
world beautiful and not destroy the
lovely living things.
The plant baby lived because OF
Hester's care; and perhaps. the Dew
Fairies had something to do with it
tooa At any rate, it kept on growing
and getting stronger every day in
spite Of it's crooked stalk, until it
burst into bloom and wassfoaded with