_half-fledged cuckoos_: The cuckoo also is a very late builder. I have more than once found its eggs in July.
_red wood-lily_: Do you know the wood-lily, or the "wild orange-red lily" as some call it (_Lilium philadelphicum_)? It is found from New England to North Carolina and west to Missouri, but only on hot, dry, sandy ground, whereas the turk's-cap and the wild yellow lily are found only where the ground is rich and moist.
_low mouldy moss_: Bring to school a flake, as large as your hand, of the kind of lichen you think this may be. Some call it "reindeer moss."
_sweet-fern_: Put a handful of sweet-fern (_Myrica asplenifolia_) in your pocket, a leaf or two in your book; and whenever you pass it in the fields, pull it through your fingers for the odor. Sweet gale and bayberry are its two sweet relatives.
_milkweed, boneset, peppermint, turtle-head, joe-pye-weed, jewel-weed, smartweed, and budding goldenrod_: Go down to the nearest meadow stream and gather for school as many of these flowers as you can find. Examine their seeds.
_wind is a sower going forth to sow_: Besides the winds what other seed-scatterers do you know? They are many and very interesting.
"_Over the fields where the daisies grow...._"
From "Thistledown" in a volume of poems called "Summer-Fallow," by Charles Buxton Going.
_seed-souls of thistles and daisies and fall dandelions seeking new bodies for themselves in the warm soil of Mother Earth_: On your country walks, watch to see where such seeds have been caught, or have fallen. They will be washed down into the earth by rain and snow. If you can mark the place, go again next spring to see for yourself if they have risen in "new bodies" from the earth.
_sweet pepper-bush_: The sweet pepper-bush is also called white alder and clethra.
_chickadees_: Stand stock-still upon meeting a flock of chickadees and see how curious they become to know you. You may know the chickadee by its tiny size, its gray coat, black cap and throat, its saying "chick-a-dee," and its plaintive call of "ph[oe]be" in three distinct syllables.
_clock strikes twelve_: As we have thought of midsummer as the hour from twelve to one in the day, so the dead of winter seems by comparison the twelve o'clock of midnight.