Mother Bunny and her flowers

CHAPTER II.
THE WILD FLOWER GARDEN

How many Wild Flowers do you know?

Can you tell the places where they grow?

Do you like these little rhymes so funny?

Do you like to meet Old Mother Bunny?

Bright and early Old Mother Bun went out to look at her Wild Flower Garden. She said,

“Trillium and Anemone,

Your little flowers I long to see;

Wild Ginger and Columbine,

You are also flowers of mine;

Lady’s Slipper and Solomon’s Seal

Many secrets will reveal;

Jack-In-The-Pulpit looks at me

Just as serious as can be.”

As Old Mother Bun tip-toed about her Wild Flower Garden the flowers nodded their welcome and began to talk to her.

The Trillium said, “If you please,

All my parts are in three’s.

You can see, when you have started,

Three petals, three sepals, stigma three parted,

I have many happy hours,

Though I bear Solitary Flowers.”

Old Mother Bun said, “I am glad you grow in my Garden, and I like the Solitary Flowers just as well as though they grew in clusters like those of Lily-of-the-Valley.”

Just then Old Father Bun looked out the window and called,

“Old Mother Bun, I beg your pardon;

Who was the first visitor in the Garden?”

Pretty Bunny just then called out,

“I’m coming out just for fun,

Old Mother Bun, Old Mother Bun.”

Healthy Bunny cried,

“There is something makes me want to sing,

Every year, in the early spring.”

Just as Old Mother Bun began to think a member of her own family would be her first visitor she heard a whir of wings, and a humming sound, and a Humming Bird lighted on a Tulip.

The Humming Bird sang to her,

“I am happy as can be

Honeysuckle soon I’ll see.”

Old Mother Bun said,

“Many years that whir I’ve heard.

Welcome, little Humming Bird.”

The Humming Bird went from flower to flower, finding honey and nectar in them. He said he came to visit the garden unusually early, as he was really a summer visitor.

The Anemones were the next flowers that wanted to speak. They said,

“We like to grow here in your bower.

Anemone, also called Windflower.”

Old Mother Bun had to search for the flower on the Wild Ginger plant. There was a single flower well hidden beneath the velvety leaves. She gave a cry of pleasure, for looking up she saw a Yellow Lady’s Slipper in bloom. The Lady’s Slipper nodded in a friendly way and said,

“Our flowers are really a delight;

We are pink, showy, or small white.”

She said there were three species of Lady’s Slippers. She sang sweetly,

“In colonies we like to grow,

When the merry spring winds blow;

In the woods search for me hours and hours;

I carry from one to three pretty flowers.”

Healthy Bunny and Pretty Bunny and Old Father Bun came out and leaned down low to catch the faintest whisper from the flowers. The Solomon’s Seal whispered,

“Many secrets I could reveal,

But my name is Solomon’s Seal.

Please observe my bell-shaped flower,

Patiently growing hour by hour;

I am a Perennial, my dear,

But throw us a fresh stalk every year;

As my flowers with a scar they make;

You can tell my age by them without mistake,

In the woods we grow so tall, ’tis said

We tower sometimes above man’s head.

Now, the False Solomon’s Seal, ’tis true,

May appear more beautiful to you.”

Just then Jack-In-The-Pulpit fairly shouted,

“I am Jack-In-The-Pulpit come to town;

I am dressed much like a Circus Clown.

Hidden beneath my six leaves green;

My suit is striped, as you have seen,

I am very glad to meet you all,

And I’ll leave red berries in the fall.”

A voice called merrily,

“To squeeze my stem you’d better refrain,

For everything I touch, I stain;

I make no exception for any one.

My leaf grows long after my flower is gone;

I am white with gold centre; does it pay

To bloom, as I do, for a single day?”

All the Bunnies examined the Blood root with the leaf circling round the stem, and the delicate flowers.

Old Father Bun remarked,

“Right down here, in this Fairy Bower,

Let us learn the parts of a flower.”

Just then a beautiful Butterfly sailed by, and attracted by the color in the Tulip Bed, sailed down, so, as a Butterfly and Humming Bird came to the garden that day, Old Mother Bun said, “What fine visitors.”

Old Father Bun said,

“I will try to teach you, if in my power,

To know and name the parts of a flower;

Calyx, corolla, pistils, and stamens,

Over and over let us name them.”

Old Mother Bun said,

“The Calyx is really the flower-cup;

See the gay Tulips springing up.”

Old Father Bun said,

“To describe is really beyond my power,

The Corolla is the prettiest part of the flower.”

Father Bun continued,

“The Stamens inside the Corolla grow,

And the pistils hold the seeds, you know.”

Just then a shout arose and a voice called,

“I turn up at odd times, it is funny,

I am Happy-Go-Lucky Bunny.”

They were all glad to see him, of course, and began to play a Flower Game. He stood in the centre of a circle they formed and said,

“Ha, ha, I’m very glad I came,

I’m thinking of a Wild Flower’s name:

Clap him out, clap him in,

With letter ‘V’ the name begins.”

He pointed to Healthy Bunny who cried, “Violet,” and changed places with him, calling for a flower whose name began with another letter, as “D” for “Dandelion” or “Daisy.” The game went on merrily. Every time after a flower was named the Bunnies skipped round the circle singing, to the tune of “Twinkle Little Star,”

“Flower Games we love to play,

In the spring when we are gay;

If you’ll learn the Flower’s names,

You can come and join our games.”

They had such a merry time that they almost forgot to go in to dinner.

As they finally sat down to dinner a Fairy Voice called,

“I am Skunk Cabbage; for me make room,

I am the earliest Wild Flower to bloom.

I am useful to you, you see;

My root is used as a remedy.”

Though the Bunnies liked Vegetable Cabbage they would not let the Skunk Cabbage in.

After dinner was over, Old Father Bun said, “I like to tell stories.”

Old Mother Bun, who was something of a tease, said,

“Why don’t you make that into a verse?

It may sound better, or may sound worse.”

Old Father Bun thought a few minutes and then said,

“I like to tell stories about Flowers;

I could tell them for hours and hours.”

Old Mother Bun had picked a Snowdrop and it nodded to them and whispered, before Old Father Bun could say another word.

The Snowdrop said a story was told about her being made from a snowflake as an angel breathed upon her, and this comforted Eve, with the message of Spring, and so the Snowdrop became a flower of comfort and promise.

As the Bunnies grew thoughtful they noticed a few flakes of snow falling, and they saw that they took the form of beautiful snow crystals.

“Oh, oh,” cried Old Mother Bun. “See the snow falling.”

Old Father Bun said,

“The snow will not hurt your flowers, I know;

The snow will soon melt and make them grow.”

Sure enough, the light fall of snow did not hurt the flowers at all, and soon the sun shone and Shadow Bunny called,

“Come out and play, come out and play;

Come and enjoy this fine spring day.”

When evening came the Bunnies were so tired they went happily off to bed. Old Mother Bun told them a story about her Tulip Bed. She said she once heard a Folk-Tale about Old Mother Delight who went out one night with a lighted lantern in her garden, and discovered that the Fairies had hidden their babies in her Tulips for the night.

Mother Delight planted more Tulip Bulbs and the Fairies were so happy they brought her Good Luck.

Mother Delight looked at one of her Tulips and said, “You look so like a turban, I believe you were named from your resemblance to it, and you are so beautiful no wonder they hold a Tulip Festival in Turkey every year.”

Old Mother Bun’s voice grew lower and lower and sank to a whisper as the little Bunnies fell asleep.

They did not know at that very minute FIVE LITTLE FAIRIES WERE CURLED UP IN THE TULIPS IN THEIR OWN GARDEN.

These Fairies were named the Ticklish Elf, the Useful Elf, the Laughing Elf, the Impish Elf, the Pretty Elf.

The first letters of their names spelled downward made the name “TULIP.”

If you read on you will learn what the little Elves did in Mother Bun’s Garden.

Old Lady Bunny and Her Tulips

Mother Bunny and her flowers

About This Book

CHAPTER II. THE WILD FLOWER GARDEN

CHAPTER II.
THE WILD FLOWER GARDEN