Page:How and Why Library 110.jpg

 ==Part I—Plants==

I. We Meet the Fairy Godmother
What if you had never seen an apple, or an apple tree! Little Esquimo boys and girls never saw them. So, just imagine that you never saw them, either.

Then, if a traveler from a strange country should bring you a little brown seed, a green leaf, a pink blossom, a bit of the wood of the apple tree and of the bark, and a juicy red apple to eat, and should tell you that they were all parts of one plant and had grown out of each other, and were made from one common food, what would you think? Very likely you would say: "What a lovely fairy story. Please tell another one."

If he were a very wise man he might say: " Very well, here's another one just like it." He would ask you to look at baby brother. Even Esquimo children have baby brothers. See his dewy, pink satin skin. Feel the soft flesh under it, and the hard round bones under that. Feel his loving little heart beat. Look into his merry blue eyes; brush the sunny curls on his head, and let him bite your finger with his pearly teeth. Watch mama cut the shell-pink finger nails that can scratch like pussy's. Those things—skin, flesh, bones, heart, eyes, hair, teeth and nails—all so different, are all a part of the baby. They are all fed and made to grow on just one food— milk. Then, maybe you'd be able to believe that the apple tree might be a really, truly story.

And that would help you understand that all living things—plants and animals—the baby and the apple tree, all of them came from seeds, and are sort of far-away cousins to each other. Isn't it pleasant to think that we are related to butterflies and birds and apple blossoms? Only children, and a few very wise grown people, can understand how this can be. Children can imagine things. They can imagine what fairies would look like if there were fairies. So they can understand the wonderful true stories that science tells, about things as strange as fairies. And then children are curious, and it is easier for them to change their minds. That makes their minds