Chambers's Elementary Science Readers Part 9

GREEN PEAS.

PART 1.

peas flow'-ers ten'-drils un-rolled'

watched thought pur'-pose but'-ter-flies half count'-ed true flow'-er with'-er stayed shin'-y touched

1. Dora was alone in the garden. She had played about till she was tired, when she found herself close to the bed of peas. She had seen her father sow the peas, and now there were tall plants with leaves and flowers and green tendrils.

2. Dora unrolled one or two of these tendrils, and then watched them roll up again. She thought:

'How funny it is of the plant to put these out on purpose to take hold of the sticks! And how pretty the flowers are! They look like little white b.u.t.terflies. I will pull one open.'

3. She picked a flower, and sat down with it on the gra.s.s. Inside of it she found something long and green. This she opened, and saw a row of tiny green b.a.l.l.s.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Pea-flower.]

4. Not one of them was half as big as a pin's head. They were all in a row, and Dora counted seven of them.

She picked out each one and laid them on her hand to look at.

5. Then it came into her mind that these little mites of things must be baby-peas. And she felt sorry to think what she had done, for she could not put them back into their nest, and now they would never grow up to be big.

6. She told Harry about it next day, and he said, yes, it was very true.

But he must pull open just one flower himself and see the peas inside; and so he did. There were six peas in his flower.

7. Every day after this, Dora and Harry came to look at the plants.

For a long time the flowers were very pretty. Then they began to wither.

One by one they dropped off; but the inside part of each stayed on, looking green and shiny.

8. The children called these shiny green things bags, till they heard some one say that they were pods.

Sometimes they touched them. They soon began to feel the peas inside.

The pods grew larger and fatter every day.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

GREEN PEAS.

PART 2.

bas'-ket sh.e.l.l'-ing bas'-in taught won'-der-ful break'-ing fair'-y hap'-pens weath'-er earth moist pea su'-gar starch earth sun'-light

[Ill.u.s.tration: Pea-pods.]

1. At last, one sunny morning, mother came out with a basket and began to pick the pods. Harry and Dora wished to help her, and all three were soon at work.

2. Next, the sh.e.l.ling began. Mother had a basin in her lap, and the two children sat close to her and sh.e.l.led their peas into it.

3. They told her how they had sh.e.l.led the baby-peas. She taught them how each plant was a living thing, and had a tiny plant inside of it, all ready to come out at the right time. This was very wonderful.

4. 'Did that big plant come out of one little pea?' cried Dora.

'I can't see a little plant inside,' said

Harry, breaking one of the peas open.

5. 'Yet it is there, a fairy-plant, with a root, a stem, and two leaves.

These leaves take up nearly all the room in the green ball. How would you like to have two or three of these peas to plant? There! I can spare you three each from to-day's dinner.'

6. The children were glad to have them. 'I wish we could see them grow,'

said Dora. 'What happens, mother, when they are in the earth?'

7. 'Do you mean, How do they begin to grow? Well, the weather must be rather warm, and the earth moist, and the pea swells itself out till it bursts open its thin coat. The little root goes down to fasten it firmly in the ground, and to look for food. Then the little stem and the two leaves come up to get air and sunshine. That is how it begins.'

8. 'What food is there in the ground? What food do the roots find?'

'Lime and iron'----

'Iron!' cried Harry.

9. 'Yes, there is iron in green peas! There are sugar, too, and starch, and fat, and water, and other things. Some come out of the earth, some come out of the air and the sunlight, and some the plant makes for itself. Oh, it is a very clever plant! But all plants are clever, I think.'

IRON AND METAL.

pock'-ets mar'-bles wrapped size heav'-y weight light'-er though cop'-per thought zinc met'-als sup-pose'

wheat i'-ron ket'-tle

1. 'What have you in your pockets, father?' asked Harry, pulling at them. 'Nuts? stones? marbles?'

'Put your hand in, and find out. Here, Dora, you can try the other pocket.'

2. In went two hands, and out came little hard lumps, each wrapped in paper. The children laid them on the table in a row, and wanted to know what they were.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 'What have you in your pockets, father?']