 These books are intended to interest children in country life. They are written in the simplest language so as to be fit for each class to read aloud. But the information given in them required to be read aloud. These books are intended to interest children in country life. They are written in the simplest language so as to be fit for each class to read aloud. But the information given in them requires explanation and illustration by the teacher. I have, in fact, tried to make each lesson the groundwork for oral teaching, in the course of which the children should be encouraged to observe, to bring in specimens, and to ask questions. Then, when the chapter is read and re-read, as is the case with most school books, it will become part of the child's own knowledge. No one can be more aware than I am how very slight these outlines are and how much more might have been given if space permitted. But I hope that much is suggested and a teacher who loves nature will fill in the gaps. The charming illustrations will enable the children to identify the animals and plants mentioned. Arabella B. Buckley Mrs. Fisher End of Preface Chapter 1 of By Pond and River This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. By Pond and River by Arabella B. Buckley Chapter 1. A Frog's Life Croak, croak, croak? We hear the frogs in the month of March. They make a great deal of noise in this month, because they are just awake from their winter sleep at the bottom of the pond. The mother frogs are laying their tiny dark eggs in the water. Each egg is not bigger than a grain of sand, but it has a coat of jelly. And this jelly swells and swells in the water, till it is as large as a pea, with a little black dot in the middle. The jelly lumps all cling together. You may see them in almost any pond, driven up to the side by the wind. Soon the dark speck lengthens. A head grows at one end and a tail at the other. The head has a mouth but no eyes as yet. The tail has a fin all around it, and the tadpole wriggles about in its slimy bed. In about a week it wriggles out of the jelly and hangs by its mouth to the weeds. Then two curious tufts grow on each side of its head. It uses these tufts to breathe by taking air out of the water. You can see them if you dip a glass into the pond and catch a few tadpoles. By this time the tadpole has let go of the weed and is swimming about. A sharp beak has grown on to his mouth. He uses it to tear off pieces of weed to eat. Now he grows eyes, nose holes, and flat ears. His tufts shrivel up and a cover grows over them so that you cannot see them. They are now like the gills of a fish. He gulps water in at his mouth and sends it out through the cover. As it passes, the gills take the air out of it and so the tadpole breathes. Soon two small lumps appear on each side of his body behind the cover just where it joins his tail. They grow larger and larger till at last two hind legs come out. These legs grow very long and strong and he uses them to swim. Two front legs are growing as well but you cannot see them because they are under the cover. In a few days these peep out but they are short and stumpy. Our tadpole has now four legs and a tail. He has four toes on the front feet and five toes on the hind feet with the skin between the toes. So his hind legs are webfooted and this helps him to swim. He comes to the top of the water much more often than before and sends a bubble of air out of his mouth. What do you think has happened? The gills under his cover have closed up and a small airbag has grown inside him. So he comes up to breathe in the air through his mouth instead of taking it out of the water through his gills. Now he likes to jump on a piece of weed and sit in the shade. He does not want his tail any longer for he can swim quite well with his legs so his tail is slowly sucked in to feed his body. There you have your little frog. If you look through the web of his foot at the sun you will see that he has red blood now but it is not warm blood like ours. He is always cold and clammy because his blood moves slowly. He has a number of teeth in the top of his mouth and such a curious tongue. It is tied down to the front of his mouth and the tip which is very sticky lies back down his throat. He does not eat weed now. He feeds on insects and slugs. He catches them by throwing out his tongue and drawing it back very quickly. He lives chiefly on land during the summer if he is not eaten by ducks, rats or snakes. Then he drops to the bottom of the pond to sleep in the mud all winter. End of Chapter 1 Chapter 2 of By Pond and River This Libervox recording is in the public domain. By Pond and River by Arabella B. Buckley Chapter 2 The Dragonfly and His Companions Every country boy or girl who wants to learn about water animals should make a pond net. You have only to get a willow twig and bind it into a hoop with a string. Then make a muslin back and sew a small stone in the bottom of it and sew the mouth of the back onto the hoop. Get a stick out of the hedge and fasten to it a long piece of string. Split the string near the end and tie it to the two sides of the hoop. Then you have a net which you can let down and fish up animals from the bottom of the pond. You had better have a wide mouth bottle as well in which you can put what you catch. I know a shady pond just outside a farmyard at the turn of a lane. There on a bright sunny day the insects are often very busy. In one corner of the pond the little whirligig beetles are swimming round and round making circles in the water. Their shining black heads look almost green in the sun. Every now and then one jumps up to catch a fly in the air or another dives down to eat a grub. Drop your net into the water and bring it up quickly under a beetle and put him in the bottle so that you can see him. You will think that he has four eyes for each of his two eyes is divided. One half looks up into the air and one half looks down into the water. So as he whirls about he can see the flies in the air and the grubs in the water. Nats are flitting to and fro over the pond and there is quite a crowd of those large flies with gauze wings which we call mayflies. And now a more splendid fly three inches long with four big gauze wings rises out of the bullrushes and flies over the pond. All boys know the dragonfly. His lovely wings are covered with crossbars filled with air and they glitter in the sunshine with red, blue and green colors. He has a long tail and a thick body with six legs and a round head with huge eyes. Each eye has more than 10,000 tiny windows in it so that he can see up and down, right and left as he darts about killing the butterflies and moths that come in his way. Then he settles down on a plant or a bush by the water side and rests till he starts off again across the pond. If you go often in April to a pond where dragonflies are you may perhaps see one begin its life in the air. This is how it happens. Under the water a large insect crawls up the stem of a plant. He has a body as big as a dragonfly and has six legs but he has a curious dull look in his face and where his wings should be there are only two short stumps. He crawls very slowly up the stem till he comes out of the water into the air. Then a strange thing happens. The skin of his back cracks and out creeps a real dragonfly. First his head, then his body with its six legs and four soft crumpled wings and lastly his tail. He cannot fly yet. He stands by his old empty skin and slowly stretches out his wings to the sun. In a few hours they are long and strong and hard. Then he is ready to fly over the pond and feed. This is how the dragonfly comes up to the air. You will not find him so easily under the water but we will try next week with our net. We have seen so much at the top of the pond today that we have not had time to dredge in the mud below. End of Chapter 2 Chapter 3 of By Pond and River Today we will use our nets. Hold the stick tight and throw the net out into the pond as a fisherman throws a fly. Then the stone will sink the net slowly. If now you pull it gently through the mud and water plants you are sure to get something. Bring the net to land and lower it on the grass and put all you can find into the clear water in the bottle. You may find a little fish or some tadpoles or water snails. Or there may be one of the curious creatures shown at A on page 10. I'm sure you would not think this was the grub of a dragonfly but it is. It is a long insect all joints with six legs and eyes something like those of the dragonfly. It has no wings but a curious kind of arm with pinchers at the end comes out from under its chin. This is really part of its underlip. It is called a mask and has a hinge so that it can be folded back under the chin. Now when the grub wants food he waits quietly in the mud till a beetle or a water bug passes by. Then he throws out his mask and catches his prey with his pinchers. Look next at the end of its tail. Sometimes it is pointed. Sometimes it opens out like the leaves of a flower. When it is open the grub draws water in and uses the air in it to breathe. Then it shoots the water out and so pushes itself across the pond. This dragonfly grub lives at the bottom of the pond for two years so you ought to catch one sometime if you try. It changes its skin many times and grows some wing stumps then it creeps up a stem as we saw in the last lesson and becomes a dragonfly. And now what is this in our net? At first you may think it is only a bit of stick or a piece of mud with little stones in it or a number of bits of grass matted together. And so it is but there is something alive inside. If you look carefully you can see the head of an insect sticking out with six legs behind it. This is a soft little creature called a cat a swarm. If you clear off the pieces of grass or stick or small stones or shells you will find the soft grub inside. It has six legs and a number of little tufts under its body. It breathes with these tufts just as the tadpole does with its tufts. You may often see cat a swarms creeping along the bottom of brooks looking like tiny moving bundles of sticks or stones. You may pick them up without using a net. They build these cases round themselves to try to protect their soft bodies which the fish like to eat. By and by they will turn into little yellow brown flies like moths. They rise and fall in the air over the water in the evening. We did not see them with the mayflies and gnats because they do not like the sunshine. You will very likely fish out a good many little water grubs in your net but you must look carefully for they are very small. Some have tufts all along their sides. These are the grubs of the gnats and mayflies you saw flying over the pond. They all live some time in the water and when they come out into the air they do not live more than a few hours. The Stickleback's Nest It was a lovely day in May. The sun was shining, the grass was green and the bushes on the banks of the river Thames were covered with fresh leaves. In a hollow place in the river a little fish was building a nest. The fish was a stickleback. It was not more than two inches long. It had three spines sticking up on its back. Boys often catch this fish and keep it in bottles or sell it to people who have aquariums. It was more pleasant to watch him at work under the shade of the bushes. He brought little pieces of fine root threads and narrow grass and made them into a tiny saucer at the bottom of the river. Then he brought more pieces and stuck them on with slime from his mouth. In this way he made sides and a round roof. When he had done the nest was as big as a large gooseberry. It was about six inches below the top of the water and had a hole right through it. When the stickleback put his head out at one end his tail stuck out at the other. But he had not built it to live in. He wanted it for the eggs of his young ones. He was a lovely little fish with a shining back and bright red belly. He had a bluish green eye that shone like a jewel. Now that his nest was built he swam off to fetch a mate. He soon came back with another fish not so bright as himself. He played with her and drove her and coaxed her. Till at last she went in at one hole of the nest and, after a little while, came out at the other end. She had deposited a tiny packet of yellow eggs which she left behind her. Then she went away and took no more care of them. The father's stickleback now went through the nest and took charge of the eggs. Each egg was not bigger than a poppy seed and the whole bunch was very tiny. He shook the nest up and poked the eggs into a snug, safe corner. Then he swam over the top of the nest waving his fins so that fresh water went in and out. Sometimes he went into the nest and brought out some dirty sand in his mouth. This he puffed away into the water. You see, he wanted to keep the nest clean. He did this every day for three weeks till the eggs were hatched. Then a number of tiny fish came out. They were so small and transparent that you would think no other fish would see them. But the stickleback knew better. There were plenty of hungry fish watching to eat the tiny fry which were very weak and had to carry a bag of food under their body to suck in till they could eat. So the brave little stickleback stuck up his three spines and dashed angrily at any fish which snapped at his little ones. He seized their fins and struck at their eyes and drove them away. He made a small round place in the sand at the bottom of the river and gathered the little sticklebacks into it and there he watched over them. Even after their spines were grown and they could swim boldly he followed them out into the river to see that they were safe. You may find plenty of sticklebacks nests in rivers and ponds if you look carefully for them. Or if you catch several sticklebacks in a bottle and put them in a large pan with plenty of weeds and food most likely you will see a stickleback build his nest and learn what a good father he is. Chapter 5 The Kingfisher Hush, do not make a noise. There is a kingfisher sitting on the bow of the willow tree hanging over the river. If we once startle him he will fly away and we shall not see him again. How lovely he looks against the gray leaves. On his long beak and his stumpy tail he is not much larger than a sparrow yet he seems to wear all the colors of the rainbow. He has a bright blue streak down his back. His head and wings are a lovely green with blue spots on the tips of his feathers. His beak is black. His chin and throat are white. He has a red streak behind his eye with soft white feathers beyond and his breast is shining like copper. Even his feet are red and look quite gay against the dull branch. He is peering down into the quiet pool under the willow watching the fish swimming below. There he has darted down to the water. Now he is up again with something in his mouth. It is a small minnow. He taps its head against the branch and gulps it down, head first. Once more and still one more fish he catches in the same way. While he is eating the last another kingfisher comes and perches by his side. This is his mate who has been fishing a little way off. She is not quite so bright as he is and has a little bit of red under her chin. Now they are going home and they fly away crying. Seep, seep, seep as they go. They live in the trees and bushes by the side of the river. For you must always remember that birds do not live in nests. The nest is only a cradle for their eggs and their little ones. As soon as they are able to fly the young birds leave it with their parents and do not often live in a nest again till they make one for their own eggs. I do not think you will easily find a kingfisher's nest so I must tell you about it. When the mother wants to lay her eggs the kingfisher's dig a tunnel in the bank and when it is made they dart into it so fast that you cannot see where they go. But if you could know where it is and dig down from above you would find a snug chamber which measures about six inches across. At the bottom of this chamber are a number of fish bones which the old birds have put there. They are mixed up together so that they make a nice open floor where the wet can get away. On the fish bones lie some shining white eggs. There will be seven if the mother has laid as many as usual and if the birds are hatched there will be seven little birds. Each bird will have all the lovely colors of which I have told you. The only difference between them and the old birds is that their beaks are shorter. Though you may perhaps not find a kingfisher's nest you will very likely see some young birds on the river. I was once out with a friend who was fishing and while his rod was over the water all at once two small kingfishers flew up and settled upon it. They rested a moment and then flew on. He had only just thrown his fly again onto the water when two more kingfishers flew up and sat on the rod. They too soon went on. It was clear that they were young birds just out of the nest and could not fly far. The kingfishers are the brightest birds you can see on the river. They look so pretty among the green leaves and hovering over the water that if you have once seen them you will want to see them again. Have you ever seen a water rat? I do not mean to land rat swimming in the water but a water rat or water vole as he ought to be called for he is not a true rat. I saw one once when he did not see me. What do you think he was doing? He was sitting up on his hind legs and in his front paws he held a piece of the leaf of the sweet yellow flag which grows so thickly by the river. It was that part of the leaf near the root which is thick and juicy. He was knowing it so busily that he did not see me at first. He was a stout little fellow, not quite so big as a rat. He feeds on plants. When he cannot get pieces of yellow flag he eats duckweed or even the bark of young willows. I could see that he had a short, thick neck and round head with a short snout. His eyes were small and I could scarcely see his ears. They were so thickly covered with fur. His round tail was not very long and had short hairs on it. I sat down very quietly on the bank not far from him and presently he looked round and saw me. But as I did not move perhaps he did not think I was alive for he went on munching his leaf. At last I touched a dead leaf with my foot. His ears heard quickly enough. He turned his little bright eyes to me and in a second he was in the water and swam away. I was too late to see him go into his hole but I found one not far from the flags just under the water. I knew I should not find his home for the waterfalls make long burrows. I went for several days to the same place and took some bread to leave there. At last one day as I sat watching out came my little friend and ate the bread. After that we met several times and he became quite tame. But I had to be very careful. The least thing frightened him and plop he went into the water. If you go off into a pond or river when all is very quiet in the evening or early morning you may sometimes see a water vole swimming in the water or feeding on the bank. He has beautiful yellow teeth. The lower ones are large and show very clearly above his short lower lip. The young water voles are such pretty little creatures. They are born in a nest of dry grass which the old voles make in the burrow and when they come out they swim about with the old ones and feed on the duckweed. But though the water vole lives mostly in the water he can come on land to gather his winter store. He is often a great trouble to the farmer for he likes the carrots and potatoes and even the broad beans which grow in the fields and he comes in the evening to eat them and to carry pieces back to his home. A farmer once dug out a water voles burrow and found enough pieces of potato and mango worsel to fill a gallon measure. End of Chapter 6 Chapter 7 of Bipond and River This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Bipond and River by Arabella B. Buckley Chapter 7 The Water Hen and the Coot If your way to school lies along a river path where trees hang over the water you will very likely have seen a water hen and her little ones. Perhaps you may know where a nest is, either among the rushes or on a bow of a tree overhanging the water. It is made of dead rushes and though it is quite close to the water it is dry and warm. If you are bathing you may look in. You will find about eight pale gray eggs spotted with red brown patches or perhaps some of the eggs may be hatched and then the young birds will be hidden with their mother in the rushes. They are little black balls of fluff with red on their heads and white tail feathers and they can run and swim directly they are born. All the time you are looking the mother hidden in the rushes will cry crook crook to drive you away. She is a black bird about as big as a pigeon with a bright red forehead and yellow beak and she has white feathers on the edge of her wings and under her tail. When she is in the water she keeps jerking her head down so that you see the white feathers and even her green legs with their red garters. Very soon after the young water hens are hatched they slip out of the nest and swim round her. If you are lying very still among the bushes you may perhaps see them all come out onto the bank and feed on worms or snails. Then you can notice that their feet are not webbed like a duck's feet but all four toes are separate. But if you make the least noise the mother will cry crook crook to her little ones and they will dive into the water and swim to a safe place among the rushes. They will not go back to the nest and even if you beat the rushes with a stick they will not move. They know that they are safer in their hiding place. This bird is often called a moor hen and she goes to the moors sometimes but water hen is her better name. And now if there is a large lake anywhere near you will see the water hen there and another bird which you may think is the same for she jerks her head and dives just in the same way. But if you look you will see that this second bird has not got a red forehead but a large bald patch on its head and it is larger than the water hen. It is a bird called the coot and often the bald headed coot because of its bald patch. If you see one on the bank feeding on seeds or insects you will notice that it has a wavy skin around each of its three front toes though they are not joined together. But the coot is not easy to see for she is very shy. She runs up a tree or dives under water before you can get near her. She has sharp claws which help her to climb and which will hurt if you catch her alive. She builds her nest among the flags or rushes almost touching the water. Sometimes her little ones are drowned when there is a flood. If a boat comes near her nest she slips off it into the rushes and cries coo coo to entice you away. If you find it you will see about ten eggs in it. They are like the water hen's eggs but larger and the spots are darker and smaller. If the eggs are hatched you will know the little birds by their bald patch though they are black fluffy balls just like those of the water hen. You will not find the coot in rivers nor will you find her on the ponds in the winter. Then she starts off with a number of other coots to the sea in the south of England and stays till spring comes again. End of Chapter 7 Chapter 8 By Pond and River This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. By Pond and River by Arabella B. Buckley Chapter 8 The Water Bugs When you go home from school if you pass a pond you are almost sure to be able to find one or more of the three water bugs of this lesson and I want you to look at them. The first is a long, thin black insect. He walks on top of the water looking like a needle on legs. He is sometimes called a needle bug but more often a water measurer because he seems to measure the water with his legs as he runs. He has very fine hairs under his body and on his legs. The air between these hairs prevents him from getting wet and being drowned. He has two long fillers and a long thin beak. His legs and body are a reddish color and his wings a glossy black. If you watch him you will see him start all at once across the pond. He is catching a water fly then he will hold it in his front claws and suck the juice out of its body. Though the water measurer has wings he does not often fly. The next water bug is not so thin. He is about an inch long and has a flat body with gray wings folded to cross it. He has only very short fillers and his front legs are thick and strong with pinchers at the end and this is why he is called the water scorpion. He uses these pinchers to seize the insects in the water and sucks them dry through his sharp beak. He swims under water very slowly or crawls in the mud and is easily caught. You may catch him too when he comes up to get air. This he does in a very funny way. He has two long bristles at the end of his tail. When he puts these together he is a hollow straw. He comes near the top of the water and thrusts out the end of this tube into the air and draws them into his body. The eggs of the mother water scorpion are stuck onto the leaves of water plants and look like seeds. The last water bug I am sure you know. He is a little fellow rather like a beetle with six legs, two of them being very long ones and he swims upside down with these two legs as if they were oars. This is why he is called a water boatman. He has a long, sucking beak but you will hardly see it unless you dip him out with a glass and look close. For as he swims upside down the bug bends his head down on his chest so that his beak lies between his legs. His eyes at the side of his head are very large so that he can look both down and up. This is very useful for he swims under tadpoles and grubs and catches them in his claws. Then he bites them with his sharp beak and sucks out their soft body. He is always swimming in the water or crawling in the mud. In the evening he sometimes comes out and flies to another pond or ditch. The mother water boatman lays small, long, white eggs on stems and leaves in the water. You may often find them in March and in April you may see the little bugs swimming upside down like their parents. If you take the trouble you may catch these three water bugs in a net and put them in a glass and see all I have told you. End of Chapter 8 Chapter 9 of Bipond and River This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Bipond and River by Arabella B. Buckley Chapter 9 Along the River Let us stroll a short distance along the river. How pretty it is with the evening sun shining through the trees. What a number of little creatures are enjoying themselves in the air and in the water. Pale little Tommy has come from London for a holiday, slips his hand in mine and says I wish I could live in the country. When he goes back to his own home in a narrow street where there is only a hard pavement instead of green grass and no shady trees nor flowing water he will remember this walk by the river. Look at those fish about three inches long swimming up and down under the bridge. Those are bull heads they are called so because they have such broad thick heads and they have a sharp spine on each side of their head which we might call the bull's horns. You will feel those spines in your hand. The king-fisher knows them well enough if he tries to swallow one for they stick in his throat. You boys call them miller's thumbs. I wonder why you think that millers have broad thumbs. The bull heads hide under stones and eat water insects and the eggs of other fish. Ah, Fred has caught one and put it in the bottle. Now Tommy can see what a lovely eye the red, green, brown and yellow colors on his scales. How busy those flies are with long wings and three long bristles on their tails. They are mayflies rising and falling over the water. They are not feeding for mayflies do not eat and only live a few hours but they have lived a long time under water as grubs like the dragonfly grub. They only want now to lay their eggs and die. Flying over that quiet pool near the mill are quite different. One has just pricked my hand and sucked some blood so I know that he can feed but then gnats have not had so long a life in the water as the mayflies. Those gnats flying over the pool were only born a few weeks ago. Their mother laid some sticky eggs each not bigger than the point of a pin and left them in a packet on the top of the still water. They very soon hatched and a number of grubs came out looking like very tiny worms with fine hairs on their sides. Each swam about in the water and ate specks of weed. Why do you think they swam with their heads down? Because they could only breathe near their tails and so had to stick them up in the air. In about three weeks each grub had changed his skin three times. The fourth time he came out with a wrap and if you could have looked at him then you would have seen a perfect gnat with wings cuddled up inside. Now he had to creep out and that was very risky for if he fell in the water he would be drowned. So he stretched himself very carefully on the top of the pool and began to push his head through a slit in the wrapper. Then he drew himself gently out and stood on tiptoe on the empty skin which floated like a boat on the water. He spread his wings and then he was safe and flew away. Sometimes the wind blows him over before he can get out and then he is drowned. If you take a pell of water out of a pond in May and keep it in the open air you may be able to see a gnat grow up for there will most likely be a great many in it but you must have sharp eyes for they are very tiny. And now the sun is setting and birds and beasts and flowers are all going to rest. Soon the night moths and the owls and bats will be coming out. We must go home. End of Chapter 9 Chapter 10 of Bipond and River This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Bipond and River by Arabella B. Buckley Chapter 10 The Otter Family About five o'clock one fine morning in May Tom, the Gamekeeper's son was examining the traps set for weasels, stoats and other vermin. His way led him over a bridge across the river and as he came near it he heard a strange whistling noise. Now Tom was a Devonshire lad and all country boys in the west of England have sharp ears for the cause of animals. Tom knew that this cry came from a father or mother otter who were fishing in the river just below the bridge where the bank was very high there grew an old willow tree with branches hanging over the river. The water had washed away the bank under the willow so that there was a big hole between its strong roots. Now Tom knew that this hole was the home of some otters. Many a time the otter hounds had stood in the water near this hole bang with all their might but they could not get in and the otters took care of it out. The hounds were far away now and everything was very quiet in the early morning so Tom lay down in the thick grass at the top of the bank and waited. By and by on came the otters swimming smoothly along with only their noses above water. The old otters swam so quietly that Tom would not have known they were there but the young otters were playing and twisting about so that first their brown furry backs and their white bellies shone in the light of the early morning sun and the water splashed about them. The river was very broad in this place and just opposite the willow was a small island. Tom was so well hidden in the tall grass that the otters had no idea that he was there so one by one they scrambled up on the island each with a fish in its mouth then they each took hold of their fish with their front feet just behind the head. They ate on till they nearly reached the tail and then left that. While they were eating Tom could see what they were like. They had long bending bodies and broad flat heads and their mouths and noses were short and broad. Their feet were webbed like duck's feet but each foot had very sharp claws at the end. Their fur was a lovely soft brown but the long hairs on the old otters were coarse and did not look so soft as the little ones. Their tails were thick and strong and very useful for helping them to swim. The father tore the fish with his teeth quite fiercely and sometimes threw small pieces to the young ones who had soon finished their tiny fish. At last all was eaten up except the heads and tails. Then the father otters slid down the bank and the others followed him and they all went to fish again. There are fewer otters than there used to be in the rivers of England but they are still to be found in many places. Only if you want to see them at home you must get up early in the morning. End of Chapter 10 Chapter 11 of Bipond and River This Liberfox recording is in the public domain. Bipond and River by Arabella B. Buckley Chapter 11 Flowers for the Show Where are you going Peggy? Asked Peter as he passed her in the lane one Saturday afternoon in July. I am going to look for flowers for the flower show next week. I shall not gather them but I want to see what I can find. May I go with you? Yes, if you can keep a secret I want to make quite a new kind of nose-gay of flowers that grow in the water but they will all fade if you put them in a bunch. I am not going to put them in a bunch. I am going to use one of father's large sink pans which he uses for the dog's food and let the plants float in the water. So Peggy and Peter started off for their favorite pond. See Peter? I must have one of those lovely yellow water lilies with its large, shiny green leaf and one of its curious seed boxes which remain after the yellow flower leaves have fallen off. I know that this plant has a thick stem in the mud at the bottom of the pond and the long stalks grow right up so that the leaves float on the top of the water. Little beetles crawl inside the flower and get honey from under the small yellow flower leaves inside. Then I must have some of those white stars with yellow in the middle. They look so pretty among their small green leaves which are cut into three half rounds. That is the water crow foot and if you hook a bit in with your stick we shall see that it has some other leaves under water which are cut into strips like fine blades of grass. Why should it have two kinds of leaves Peggy? One set are its floating leaves to keep the flowers above the water where the insects can get at them and the others are lighter and can spread out in the water without making so much green leaf and look Peter the yellow lines on the white flowers point straight to the narrow end of the flower leaf where the insects find the honey. Then I must have some duckweed it will cover the pan so nicely but the duckweed is not pretty Peggy, it is all leaves. No Peter, that is just what it is not. Paul told me the other day that the duckweed has no real leaves. Each plant is a little bit of stem with a thin root hanging down in the water. Very tiny flowers sometimes grow in a little split in the side of the stem. I try to get one of these but they are so very small and are only made of two little dust bags and a seed box but the duckweed will float on the water. Now Peter, I want to find a bog bean in flower. I am afraid it is rather late in the year but there are some I know at the shallow end of the pond. You must look for a large spike of pink white flowers shape something like white bluebells and lined with a number of white hairs. There is one with the buds just opening. It will be alright for Wednesday. Now we must have one more. A little plant called the water mill foil which is almost all under water except the spike of tiny pink flowers which stand straight up in the air. Look at its fine leaves arranged in stars around the stem. They lie out so well in the water. If you look very carefully at the flowers you will see that the top ones have only dust bags in them and the bottom ones have only seed boxes. But they are so small it is not easy to see this. Now I must not choose any more for I must describe each one on my show card and it will take a long time. End of Chapter 11 Chapter 12 of By Pond and River. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. By Pond and River by Arabella B. Buckley Chapter 12. Peggy's Plants When Wednesday came Peggy's pan was ready. She had taken it to the pond and dipped it gently under the duckweed. She brought it up quite full and picked it over very carefully leaving only the best plants. Then she carried it to the showroom. There she put the yellow lily into the middle of the pan so that the flower and the stalk with the seed vessel fitted into the hollow between the ears of the leaf stalk. Next she put pieces of the water crowfoot here and there. The pretty white blossoms streaked with yellow resting upon the top of the water. She stuck two spikes of bog bean with their leaves, one on each side of the water lily. Lastly she put spikes of the water milfoil around the edge of the pan. Their leaves made little green stars in the water all the way round and their spikes made a lovely edge. Then she wrote her card. This is what she said. 1. The yellow water lily grows in the pond near the farm. It has a thick stem rooted in the mud down at the bottom. I saw it once when they cleaned the pond. We see nothing on top of the water in March but in May the large shining green leaves have grown to the top of the water on long stalks. They are shaped rather but they are pointed at the tip. In June the buds come up. They are like green knobs tipped with yellow. But as they grow bigger the five outer leaves or seeples open and they are quite yellow inside. Then we can see the small inner flower leaves or petals arranged in two rows. After them come a number of stamens made of thin threads with dust bags on the top. Then right in the middle is or ovary. It is shaped like a water bottle with a round cushion on the top and has a number of sticky points which lie on the cushion in the shape of a star. Little beetles are often found in the flowers. They fly in and suck the honey at the back of the petals. 2. The water crow foot grows in our pond. It is a kind of buttercup. It has five outer green leaves or seeples. They turn back at the stem when the flower is open. They often fall off. There are five white petals. They are streaked with yellow near the middle of the flower where there are drops of honey. After the petals come many stamens and then in the middle of the flower a number of seed boxes each with one seed inside. The water crow foot has two kinds of leaves. The leaves which float on top of the water are flat and cut into half rounds. The leaves underwater are cut into threads and spread out on all sides. 3. There is a great deal of duckweed in our pond. Each plant has one little root in the water and a kind of stem at the top. It has no leaves. The tiny flowers sometimes come out of a slit in the side of the stem. Each flower is nothing but two dust spikes and a tiny seed box. 4. Dog bean or duck bean is nearly out of flower now. It grows at the edge of the pond and its leaves are cut into three long parts. The pinkish flowers stand out on little stalks upon a tall stem. They are cup shaped with five points and have a number of white hairs inside. 5. The water mill foil grows almost all underwater. Only the small pink flowers stand in a spike out in the air. The flowers at the top of the spike have only stamens in them. Lower down some have both dust bags and seed boxes. The ones at the bottom have seed boxes or ovaries only. Mill foil leaves are narrow, like grass, but quite short. They stand round the stem like the spokes of a wheel or the rays of a star. Peggy's water nose gay and show card won the prize. End of Chapter 12 End of By Pond and River by Arabella B. Buckley