CHAPTER PAGE I. DAISIES 1 II. JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT 5 III. RED AND WHITE CLOVERS 8 IV. CLOVER DESIGNS 12 V. OTHER WILD-FLOWER DESIGNS 19 VI. PUSSY-WILLOWS 24 VII. ARRANGEMENT OF FLOWERS 33
VIII. FAIRY-TREES MADE OF GRASSES 40 IX. A HOUSE MADE OF GRASS 45 X. GRASS DRESS AND GRASS HEAD-DRESS 56
XI. OAK-LEAVES 61 XII. GRAPE-LEAF DRINKING-CUP 68 XIII. GREEN-LEAF DESIGNS 71
XIV. PHLOX 76 XV. CULTIVATED FOXGLOVE 81 XVI. MISS HOLLYHOCK'S GARDEN-PARTY 88 XVII. DAFFODILS 92
XVIII. SEED-VESSEL PLAYTHINGS 96 XIX. BUCKEYE HORSE AND BUCKEYE RIDER 103 XX. BURDOCK-BURRS 108 XXI. THINGS TO MAKE OF ENGLISH-WALNUT SHELLS 117
XXII. THINGS YOU CAN MAKE OF LIMA BEANS 123 XXIII. SWEET-POTATO ALLIGATOR AND WHAT TO MAKE OF A RADISH 130 XXIV. GREEN-PEA TOYS AND A GREEN-PEA DESIGN 136 XXV. CORN-HUSKS AND CORN-COBS 148
XXVI. THE FUNNY ORANGE-HEAD 163 XXVII. APPLES AND APPLE FUN 171
WILD flowers, like children, are up early. _They_ don't want to lie abed after their long winter's sleep; they want to be awake and see what is going on in the world. While you think it is still winter there is a stirring going on under the blankets of brown earth, and sometimes before the snow is off the ground you may find the little things working up through the stiff soil and opening their eyes to the gentle spring sunshine.
It is remarkable the way the soft, tender sprouts force their way through hard ground that we would have to take a knife or trowel to dig into. But they do it. Not all at once with a great, blustering rush, but gently, steadily, and quietly they push and keep on pushing until their heads are above ground; then they begin to grow in good earnest, and pretty soon they laugh right out into blossom.
The pleasure these earliest wild flowers give us is in going out to look for them and in gathering handfuls to carry home and put into little glass bowls to be "Oh'd" over and wondered at, to be admired and loved because they are lovely, and because they bring some of the sweet outdoors of spring into the furnace-heated house.
They are too delicate and fragile, these anemones, hepaticas, and bloodroots, to be handled and played with, but later come the stronger, sturdier flowers and with many of these you can do all sorts of entertaining things. You don't have to look very far for them either. They are in the fields, by the roadsides, and even along the edges of the streets of a village or small town. You won't find them in the city.