The Wild Flower Book for Young People
Alice Lounsberry
eBook
(, March 19, 2010)
This delightful children's book was published in 1906. From the book's Preface: The little girl who tells this story goes from the city to live in the country with her grandmother. There, through the spring, summer, and the cool, crisp autumn, she roams through woods, meadows and swamps, and sees many things that pique her curiosity. Most often it is the wild flowers she wishes to know about; although she notices the birds, the trees, and even a bullfrog. She sees that the sky changes, and wonders why the dewdrops cling so long to blades of grass. In her own way this little girl writes about these things, using neither botanical terms nor difficult words. The flowers she finds are the ones common throughout the northeastern States of her country, where hundreds of them bloom every year near large cities. Now, however, the rarer flowers are moving to places far away from men's dwellings, because they have been picked so much by those who think little of their preservation. She learns that wild flowers have tender feelings, and that they resent cruel treatment, even though they can- not complain in the language of children. This little girl loves the flowers dearly, and listens eagerly to stories told her about them by a boy named Tommy. Indeed, she makes friends with girls and boys in the country, and Dame Nature guides her by various paths to the heart of many secrets. In this book there are pictures showing a num- ber of wild flowers, and also these bright-eyed children as they played among them out-of-doors. On some days another author besides the little girl went with the children, tramping across fields and by deep streams. They told her, too, tales about the fun they had together, and showed her places where certain wild flowers bloom each year. They helped her in many ways, and for their com- panionship, and gay chatter, she now sends her most loving thanks. A.L.