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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/28812-8.txt b/28812-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..42b8cc0 --- /dev/null +++ b/28812-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1638 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Every Girl's Book, by George F. Butler + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Every Girl's Book + +Author: George F. Butler + +Release Date: May 14, 2009 [EBook #28812] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EVERY GIRL'S BOOK *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +EVERY GIRL'S BOOK + + + + +EVERY GIRL'S BOOK + +BY + +GEORGE F. BUTLER, M. D. + +1912 + +THE ABBOTT PRESS + +RAVENSWOOD + +CHICAGO + + + + +Copyright 1912 + +THE ABBOTT PRESS + +CHICAGO + + + + +PUBLISHER'S NOTES + +This is the second of a series of books on "How to Live," by Dr. +George F. Butler. These books range from childhood to old age. The boy +and the girl, the young man and young woman, the young husband and +young wife, middle-aged people, and old people are instructed in these +books in matters of the utmost importance to their health and +happiness. The first in this series was "Every Boy's Book." These two +books are especially intended for boys and girls from ten to fourteen +years of age, but every father and mother should read them, so they, +too, can know the truth about these great sex facts, and be prepared +to answer children's questions--now sometimes troublesome. + + + + +CONTENTS + + Chapter Page + I. How the Story Began 1 + II. What the Bee Wanted of Elsie's Nose 10 + III. The Husbands and Wives of Plants 21 + IV. The Papa and Mamma Parts of the Plants 34 + V. The First Life on Earth 43 + VI. Where Baby Animals Come From 54 + VII. Where Baby Girls Come From 62 + + + + +PREFACE + +The greatest duty of mankind lies in the proper uprearing of our +children. The fact is recognized, but is the duty fulfilled? +Do we rear our children as we should? There is but one answer: +We fail. Teaching them many things for their good, we yet keep +from them ignorantly, foolishly, with a hesitancy and neglect +unpardonable--knowledge, the possession of which is essential for +their future welfare. + +The first necessity for well-being is a healthy mind in a healthy +body. We can give our children that, if we will, by teaching them all +about the body, its source of life, its different functions, and its +care. The child should grow to maturity knowing that the human body +is something fine, something that accomplishes good, something to be +proud of in every way. Above all should the child be taught all +concerning the process of reproduction, just as it is taught the +action of the stomach or of the brain. By so doing, we can produce a +better and healthier and happier generation to follow ours. By what +strange and mistaken impulse in the past such absolutely required +teaching has been so studiously withheld is beyond all comprehension. + +We want the best for our children. We want them to grow up with right +thoughts and habits, yet we keep from them the knowledge without which +their thoughts and habits will surely be imperiled when there arises +in them the generative instinct, which has its effect upon both male +and female youth alike. + +We give them no information as to sexual matters; and, when it comes +to them, it is too often but in the way of half-truths, mysterious, +exciting to the imagination, and dangerous. + +Yet how simple and natural the giving of this information might be +made; and how easily the child might be safeguarded! Mankind has +demands which must be gratified. We have hunger; we have thirst; we +have the impulse of reproduction. Each is right and natural. There +should be no difference in the consideration of either of these wants. +All about them the child should be taught, from the beginning, so that +all will be natural and right and commonplace and a matter of course +long before the age is reached when the sexual instinct is developed. + +Is not this reason? Is it not healthful, logical, common sense? Is it +not the wholesome and right and proper view? + +Nature is devoted to reproduction. From the cell to the flower, and so +on upward, the creatures of the world are but renewing themselves, and +the learning of this is the greatest and most beautiful of all +studies. All this the child can be taught. + +Elementary biology, or the study of subjects of what we call zoology +and botany combined, can be made the most attractive of studies to any +child who has learned to read. The boy or girl may be taught that the +trees and flowers are living things that are beautiful and are male +and female. The child may be shown how the bees carry the pollen from +flower to flower, and how other plants and flowers are produced in +that way. + +He can be taught the wonder of seed, and its consequences. He can be +shown the birds in their mating, and the marvel of the egg, and why it +can produce a chicken. And thus the child, boy or girl, may be led on, +through the gradations, to a study of the human body, and how +reproduction is provided for there as in the bodies of all other +living things, vegetable or animal. + +Before the child, boy or girl, has reached the age of ten, long before +the sex instinct has been aroused, the sexual lesson will have been +learned innocently and thoroughly and, when the change comes, it will +be as no bewildering, exciting thing, but something anticipated, and +received with a sense of understanding and responsibility. + +This knowledge almost unknowingly acquired as a child, will mean +health of mind and of body, and the avoidance of what may result most +evilly. + +How is sexual instruction given now? In tens of thousands of +instances--no doubt in the majority--not at all. Lectures to youth of +either sex are given sometimes, but only when they have reached what +is called "the age of understanding." + +Here is where parents err, and seriously. The teaching has been +deferred too long. The young of either sex, long before puberty, have +acquired some knowledge of the mystery--which should have been no +mystery at all--and late teaching, however sound and wise, but gives +an added and inviting direction to the subject suddenly made to assume +a new and startling importance. It arouses curiosity, and more. It may +sometimes be harmful. + +As for the youth never taught at all, those who acquire their +knowledge only through accidental sources--usually incapable, and too +often vicious--their case could not be worse. They are unprepared for +one of the tests and demands for life. Their parents are guilty. + +There is nothing impure in nature. To guard the children, to prepare +them for every phase of life, is the parents' duty. The child is pure, +and to the child all things are pure. Teach the child, simply as a +matter of course, all about the ways of reproduction, and to the boy +or girl purity will remain when the age of sexual sway and impulse +comes. This is the only law in the case. Let it be followed, and the +generation to follow will be clearer, wiser, and healthier than is the +present one. + +It is my hope that this "Every Girl's Book" (with "Every Boy's Book" +which preceded it) will afford the means so long needed and desired +for teaching children what they should be taught. I have tried to tell +the story of sex naturally, in a clear and simple way, from the +development of life, and of life's relations, from protoplasm all +through organic life up to mankind. Its teachings should result in +wide promotion of the innocence of knowledge which is better, +infinitely, than the imperiling innocence of ignorance. + + George F. Butler, M. D. + + Chicago, Ill. + July 1, 1912. + + + + +I + +HOW THE STORY BEGAN + + +Her name was Elsie and she was asleep in a cozy nook in the woods, +which was the beginning of it all. + +Many strange things may happen to a little girl who falls asleep in +the woods, but there never happened to any other little girl, either +asleep or awake, in the woods or at home, a more important thing than +that which had its start for Elsie while she lay there under the green +boughs beside a bubbling spring of crystal-clear water, the scent of +pines and flowers sweetening the still air. A robin redbreast whistled +melodiously for "rain, rain, rain," and the cows in the pasture, who +do not like rain as well as they do sunshine, lifted up their voices +in protest, calling "oo-oo-ohh! moo-oo-hh! noo-oo-hh!" as if they were +trying to say "no, no, no!" and could not speak the English language +well. It was a peaceful woodland scene, a scene into which, if you +were awake, you would expect that a railroad train would be about the +last thing that could possibly enter. + +But Elsie was asleep, and in her dreams she was sure she saw a great +locomotive engine charging down upon her with frightful speed. As soon +as she saw it she tried to cry out, but could not do so. Somehow she +could not send a single sound from her lips. Then she tried to jump +out of the way, but was unable to do that either. She could not even +move in the slightest degree. So, full of terror, she thought she +stood there, helplessly, while the engine rushed nearer and nearer, +puffing forth vast clouds of black smoke, and roaring and hissing and +clanking. Again she tried to scream, and could not: again she tried to +run aside, but could not move. She seemed so small, so tiny and weak, +beside that monster! And she wondered how it could possibly bear to +hurt her, a big, powerful thing like that--it was not fair! But--bang! +The cowcatcher caught her up-- + +And she awoke to see a fuzzy bumble-bee just alighting on her nose! + +Though Elsie did not, as a general thing, care much for bumble-bees, +and would rather have their room than their company, she was so highly +relieved to find that the gigantic engine was _only_ a bumble-bee that +she said, "Oh!" with such violence of surprise and gladness that the +bee, doubtless as much afraid of her as she had been of the +dream-engine, shot out of sight in an instant and she never saw him +afterward, that she knew of. + +She sat a moment staring after him, trying to collect herself, for she +was confused with her sudden awakening, and then she jumped up +laughing. + +"What a funny bumble-bee!" she exclaimed. "_I_ wouldn't have hurt +him!" Then in conscious dignity, proud to think that she was now big +enough for something to be afraid of, she took up the pail of water +that she had come to get from the spring and hurried homeward. + +Now if this were all the story it would not amount to much, and it +never would have got itself told in these pages. And, if Elsie had +been like some girls, who are not chums with their mothers, the story +would never have been told here either, because she would not have +repeated the adventure to her mamma, in which case her mamma would not +have taken the story up where the daughter left it, and shown its +importance. But Elsie and her mother were like two sisters, a big and +a little one, and there were not many things that happened to the one +that the other did not hear of very soon. So away went Elsie singing +and laughing and swinging her pail of water, her bright hair blowing +in wisps around her sweet face with its red lips and cheeks and white +teeth, the prettiest, loveliest picture in the whole lovely landscape +of foliage and flowers and pastures and meadows. + +Nobody in the world ever yet found a prettier picture anywhere than a +fresh and clean girl is, as everybody will admit if asked, and Elsie +was fresh and clean even if she had just been rudely aroused from +sleep. She bathed her whole body twice every day, washed her face and +hands often, brushed her teeth always after eating, smiled a great +deal, and got plenty of fresh air and sunshine, and this was enough to +make any girl fresh and clean and pretty, or almost enough. + +Of course a girl must eat sufficient food, and must brush her hair and +take care of her nails, and all those little things--everybody knows +that. But the main things, beside food, the things, too, that some +little girls fail in, are air, sunshine, water and smiles. Elsie had +all these and therefore she looked clean and fresh and pretty. + +She had on a dress too, naturally, but I don't know just what kind of +a one it was, for that is a small matter compared with the body +itself. I think it was some kind of a calico, made for vacation +frolicing, for Elsie was a city girl staying in the country for the +summer, and almost anything was good enough for that. + +So Elsie, fresh and clean, dancing and singing up the lane, swinging +her pail of crystal water, the loveliest sight in the whole lovely +landscape, came in view of the house where they were staying. And no +sooner had she caught a glimpse of her mother on the porch than, eager +to tell her funny experience, she ran forward in pleasant excitement, +crying out: + +"Oh, mamma! Such a queer thing--Oh, Oh, it was an engine, the biggest, +biggest you ever saw--and--and it stepped on my nose--I mean it was +only a bumble-bee and--it--it almost ran right over me--" + +"Isn't my little girl somewhat mixed in her speech!" smiled her mother +as Elsie paused for breath. + +"I--I guess I--I am!" Elsie faltered. "But then, I'm so excited!" + +"Yes, you are excited," smiled her mother, putting her arm around her +shoulders and walking with her to the kitchen. "And when you are calm +you may tell me all about it." + +So Elsie carried the pail of water to the sink and set it on its +shelf. And when she had worked off her surplus energy in this way she +felt sober enough to tell her story clearly, and she did so, snuggled +in her mother's arms in the hammock on the porch. She finished by +saying: + +"Wasn't that a funny thing, mamma, that I should dream that the +bumble-bee was an engine just going to run over me!" + +Then the really important part of the story began. Her mother +answered: + + + + +II + +WHAT THE BEE WANTED OF ELSIE'S NOSE + + +"Yes, it may seem funny, but it is natural. When you were asleep you +heard the bee buzzing and rumbling, and the sound reminded you of an +engine, so you began to picture an engine in your mind, and with the +queer mixture of fact and fancy that are common to dreams you thought +it was coming right at you. And it was only a bumble-bee taking a look +at your little red-and-white nose." + +Elsie clapped her hands and laughed. Then she asked: + +"What did the bee want to see my nose for, mamma?" + +"He thought, perhaps, that it was some new kind of a bud, and he +wished to examine it," Mrs. Edson smiled. "A little girl's face is +very much like a pretty flower. Your hair was tumbled all about your +head, I suppose, and your little rosebud of a nose, peeking through, +attracted the bee." + +At this idea Elsie laughed again, joyously. + +"But, mamma," she asked, "why should the bee wish to see my nose, even +if he did think it might be a flower? Do bees eat flowers, mamma?" + +Elsie's mother threw her a sudden look that was almost a startled one. +Then she hugged her close and kissed her. + +"What a great big little girl you are getting to be, darling!" she +said, gazing fondly at her. This did not seem to Elsie much like an +answer to her question, and she fixed her eyes brightly on her +mother's face as if waiting for her to go on with her words. But her +mother only said: "I scarcely realized that you were no longer my +little baby-girl, and that you were instead almost a young lady, old +enough to understand many new things, among them the reason why a bee +goes to flowers." + +She paused again, looking at her big little girl wistfully. She was +thinking: "Elsie has begun to be a woman now, and I shall soon, all +too soon, lose my baby-girl, for she will grow up and marry and go +away to a home of her own and have a little girl like herself, just as +I have had her!" + +This made her feel sad, but she said nothing to Elsie of this feeling, +for she would not be able to understand it and it would only make her +feel sad too. By and by she would tell her what it meant to have a +husband and children and home of her own, after her parents were +passed away, and she must begin to prepare her for this knowledge now. +So, finally, she said: + +"No, darling, bees do not eat flowers, though they eat a part of them, +or a product of them. The most important thing that they visit flowers +for, as far as the world is concerned, is to fertilize them." + +"Fer-fer-ilize!" stammered Elsie. "What is that, mamma?" + +"Not ferferilize, darling, but fertilize, fer-til-ize, which means to +make rich, or fruitful. As strange as it may seem the bees and other +insects are of vast importance to men--sh-h!" + +She suddenly held up her hand, motioning for silence, and Elsie, +wondering what was coming, followed her mother's pointing finger with +her eyes. What she saw was a bee hovering over a bright yellow +buttercup that grew almost within reach of where she sat. + +"Watch him!" whispered her mother. + +Elsie did so, holding her breath for fear of scaring him away. He +alighted on the flower, crawled clumsily over it for a second or two, +pausing now and then to bury his head in the blossom, but he did not +do anything else, that Elsie could see, except to tumble about very +awkwardly and funnily and then fly away to another buttercup and +repeat the operation. Elsie drew a long breath and looked at her +mother inquiringly. + +"It did not seem as if he did much, did it, dearie!" she said in +answer to the look. "But in reality he did a great deal, for he--what +shall I say--married? Yes, married! The bee actually married those two +buttercups together, so that next season, when these two flowers, the +papa and mamma, are dead and gone, there will spring up and grow other +buttercups, baby-plants, the children of these two. If it were not for +the bee, or other insects, we should have no bright flowers in the +world." + +"Oh!" Elsie's eyes opened wide. She thought a moment, then, "Could he +marry my nose to anything?" she burst forth. But seeing the absurdity +of the notion before the words were fairly out of her mouth she joined +in her mother's laughter over it. + +"No, dearie, of course not. It is only flowers that bees marry +together. And not the least strange thing about it is that they do not +know they are doing so." + +"Don't know what they are doing!" exclaimed Elsie. + +"Oh, yes, they know what they are doing for themselves, but they can't +have the least notion of what they are doing for the flowers and +indeed for the whole world! Without plants there could be no life of +any kind on earth. It is the plants that produce life. Through them +come animals, and even men and women and little girls. The plants feed +on the earth and air, which men and animals cannot do. A man or a lamb +cannot eat the soil or live on air, but a plant lives by eating the +minerals and gases and water of the earth and air, and the man and +the lamb eat the plants, and so are able to live. Without the plants +we could not exist, and without the insects, which fertilize the +plants, so that they can grow, the plants themselves would soon die. +Don't you think now that what the bee did was quite an important +matter, even if it did seem so trivial?" + +"Ye-yes," Elsie hesitated. She did not yet grasp the full depth of her +mother's words. They meant so much! "But," she continued, her bright +eyes eagerly turned on her mother's face, "we don't eat the buttercup, +mamma, do we?" + +"No, sweetie, but we do eat very gladly a part of it, and that is the +part that the bee visited the flower for, and which he took away as +his fee for marrying the two. Can you guess what it is?" + +The idea of a bee performing a marriage between flowers and taking a +fee for it was a little too much for Elsie, and when it was added that +she and her mother ate this fee such a look of amazement came into her +sweet face that her mother could not help smiling broadly. + +"It is the honey, little girlie," she said. "The bee takes the honey +from the flower and carries it home to the hive, where he stores it up +until he has a great mass of it, and then the bee-man gets it and +sells it to the grocer, who sells it to us." + +"W-e-l-l!" said Elsie slowly, "if that isn't strange!" She sat a +moment thinking of this miracle, her mother watching her lovingly and +considering what she ought to say next, for she had a great secret to +tell her little daughter, a secret so great and important that much +wise thought was required to study out just how to make it plain to a +girl as young as Elsie. Besides, she was interested to know what Elsie +herself would say next, for she was bringing her up to think +logically, so that she might know always how to ask the right question +at the right time, instead of the wrong one. And she was very much +pleased when Elsie, instead of putting the last question first, as +some little girls would have done, put the right one first by saying: + +"But, mamma, how _can_ flowers marry! And how can a bee possibly marry +them?" + +This was the right question to ask first, even if it was a kind of +double-headed one, because this marriage was the first of the wonders +that had amazed her, and the answer to it would lead logically to the +fee and the honey eaten by people, and these questions would be easier +to make plain after the first one was answered. + + + + +III + +THE HUSBANDS AND WIVES OF PLANTS + + +Mrs. Edson drew a long breath because she knew the time had arrived +when, for her little daughter's sake, she must give her the +information which would mark her growth from girlhood into young +womanhood, and the fact disturbed her, for she did not want to lose +her little girl, even in exchange for the lovely young lady whom she +knew would take that dear little girl's place. But it must be done, +and, thankful that she had studied the subject enough to know how to +do it in a nice and plain way, she began: + +"In the first place, dear," she said, "you must know that the flowers +are the husbands and wives of plants, made so by nature. They are in +their way as truly married as Mr. and Mrs. Jones are in their way, or +as your papa and I are. This marriage is a law of nature, invented to +carry on the race, whatever that race may be, whether it is that of +mankind, or plants, or animals, or birds, or even fishes. For not only +do men and flowers marry, everything in nature does the same--turtles, +frogs, robins, elephants, everything!" + +Elsie wished very much at this point to ask if her mother had ever +seen an elephant's wife, thinking that she must look rather funny, +much different, to say the least, from a flower's wife, but as the +answer came to her at once, without asking the question, she said +nothing. Of course an elephant's wife must be another elephant, as the +flower's wife was another flower. But it was all very singular, and +the sparkle of her eyes as she looked into her mother's face showed +her interest in what might be coming. Mrs. Edson went on: + +"We will begin with plants, because they came first into the world as +living beings, and all other living beings not only had their origin +in plants but live by aid of them to this day. From the plants grew +animals, and from animals grew men and women and little girls. It took +a long, long time for all this to come about, so long that the human +mind fails to grasp or comprehend it; and at first, when one hears of +it for the first time, it seems wholly impossible and unbelievable. +But science has proved it to be true, and even shows the exact way in +which the various changes were made. Many, if not all, the steps by +which we mounted from the condition of a tiny speck of jelly-plant, a +speck no bigger than the point of a pin, to become human beings are +still in existence and are frequently observed by scientists. With a +microscope anybody may see them. So we know that the theory of +evolution, as it is called, is a true one. It is also an exceedingly +wonderful and beautiful truth, full of secrets and surprises of the +most interesting and delightful kind, as I shall show. Now let's go +and examine the buttercup that the bee just married to the second +buttercup." + +Elsie jumped up with a little gurgle of joy and ran ahead of her +mother to the flower. This was better than playing "secret" with +Rosie and Eva and the other girls, for their secrets were not real +ones, they were just made up and they did not amount to very much +after all, but this was a real one, kept up in earnest with the bees +and flowers. And now she was to be let into it! Mrs. Edson bent over +the bright yellow blossom, taking it gently in her fingers to prevent +it from nodding so briskly in the breeze that they should be unable to +examine it closely. + +"You see, dear," she said, pointing with a twig to the different parts +as she named them, "right here, in the exact center of the blossom, is +a bunch of green growing in the form of an oval, shaped somewhat like +an egg with the smaller end upward." + +"Yes, oh, yes!" Elsie answered eagerly. "What is it, mamma?" + +"Broadly speaking we will call it the ovary. I am not going to confuse +you by giving you too many hard words at first, words like corolla, +carpel, style, stigma, and the like. I shall name only two parts of +the flower for you to remember just now, because only two are really +necessary to be named at this point. So the name of this one +is--what?" + +"Ovary!" answered Elsie quickly. + +"Yes, ovary! It is called so because it contains ovules, which are +tiny seeds or eggs. That is the mother part of the plant." + +"The mother!" Elsie queried. "Why, mamma, is there a father too?" + +"Yes, dearie, many plants have both a mother and a father part, which +grow near together in the same flower, while other plants have only a +father part, and still others have only a mother part. This buttercup +has both, has both the male and the female principle. The ovary is the +female, and here, above it and surrounding it, you see a number of +taller spires, yellow in color and each of them bearing a tiny +enlargement, a kind of knob, at the top." + +"Yes, yes, but that--that can't be the papa part! Is it, mamma?" she +cried, examining the rather insignificant appearing spires dubiously. +"They don't look much like a--a papa!" she said in some +disappointment. Her mother laughed. + +"They certainly do not look much like a man-papa," she returned, "but +they form the papa part of the plant, nevertheless, and are truly the +papas of the baby buttercups. And their name is the second one that I +wish you to remember from now on. It is stamen." + +"Stamen!" said Elsie. + +"Yes, each of these stems is called a stamen, and they form the male +part of the plant, the father part. Many plants, those of the simpler +kinds, have only one stamen and it grows in the flower so that its +head hangs right above the ovary. Here you see that all of the stamens +are above the ovary, and the reason why they are placed there by +nature you will see very soon. What I wish now is to show you why the +bee came to the flower." + +"I know--it was for honey! Isn't that what you said before, mamma?" + +"Yes, darling, but do you see any honey here?" + +"No, mamma, and I never knew before that buttercups had honey. I +always thought honey came from a beehive." + +"It does come to us from a beehive, but it comes from flowers first, +and one of the many kinds that furnish it is this buttercup. The bee +sips it from the flowers, just a tiny bit from each blossom that he +visits, and when he has enough he takes it home to the hive and puts +it away to eat by-and-by, in the winter, when there are no flowers +growing for him to rifle. He does it just as men lay away money for 'a +rainy day,' as we say, and as squirrels lay up a store of nuts for the +cold weather. Now, suppose you count those flattened, round-cornered +parts of the buttercup--how many are there?" + +"Five," said Elsie quickly. + +"Yes, there are five of them, and they are called petals. You will +notice that they are much narrower and slighter at the bottom than +they are at the top. It is at the bottom that they are joined to the +central part of the flower. Now, just where they are connected with +this central part there is a tiny sack of honey." + +"It must be _very_ tiny," said Elsie, regarding the slender connection +earnestly, "for there isn't room enough for much, I'm sure. And it +must be all covered up, for I can't see any signs of it." + +"It is covered up. There is a very small scale, or leaf, over it to +protect it from those insects who have no right to the honey. But the +bee knows how to get at it, and he does so very quickly, once he +alights on the blossom, as we have just seen one do. For while he +appeared as if he were merely tumbling clumsily around on the flower +he was sampling those honey-sacks, and we saw how speedily he finished +all five of them on this flower and then buzzed busily away to the +other." + +"He was just the same as at dinner, then, wasn't he mamma! But why did +he go to the other flower--didn't he get all he wanted from this +one?" + +"No, darlingest, he gets but very little from each flower. If he could +take all he wanted from one he would never fly right to another. And +then, if all the other insects should do the same, the whole plan of +nature would fall through and there would soon be no life on earth." + +Elsie's eyes looked very large when she heard this. + +"Would I die, and you, mamma, and all of us--Alice and Rosie, and, oh, +everybody we know?" + +"Yes, dearie, all of us. Those few simple plants which still, in the +primitive way, fertilize themselves, are not enough and are too weak +to carry on the vegetation of the earth, and without the insects and +birds and the wind we never should have been born at all; for they are +necessary to make the plants reproduce their kinds and grow, and the +plants are necessary food for us as well as for the animals that we +eat, such as the hens and ducks and sheep and cows. So nature has +given each flower only a little honey, not enough for the bee, and he +is compelled to fly to many before he becomes satisfied. And this +brings us back to the stamen and ovary again, to show what they are +for and how the bee marries the two plants together after he has +collected his fee of delicious honey." + +"I am all 'tention," said Elsie, in so quaint an imitation of older +folks that her mother was forced to smile, knowing that she had a +listener that was interested, to say the least--a listener who felt +the importance and gravity of the study which they were now pursuing. +Elsie never attempted big words except when she felt dignified. + + + + +IV + +THE PAPA AND MAMMA PARTS OF THE PLANTS + + +"Now," said Mrs. Edson, taking hold of the buttercup again, "you see +here, at the top of each stamen, the slight enlargement that I +mentioned. It looks like a kind of knob, and it really is a hard, +hollow sack, or bag, containing a fine yellow powder, which is called +pollen. Is that plain so far, dearie?" + +"Pollen, yes, mamma! And do you wish me to remember that name too?" + +"Yes, it is very necessary that you should do so. You will soon learn +why. Now look again at the green ovary. That is also hollow, and +contains seeds or eggs, as I said before. In plants we call them +seeds and in animals eggs. And it is these seeds that grow into the +baby plants. But they cannot grow alone, without help. With a certain +kind of help they can and do grow, and what do you suppose that help +is?" + +Elsie gazed earnestly at her mother, trying to think it out. But she +was compelled to shake her head after all. + +"I can't imagine," she said. + +"Nothing but that some of the pollen shall be mixed with them," said +her mother. + +"Oh, I see, I see!" Elsie cried delightedly. "That is why the stamens +with the pollen in them are right over the ovaries." + +"Yes, dear, you have guessed it. The ripe pollen, falling into the +ripe ovary, would fertilize the seeds. And with some plants, the +earlier and simpler kinds, this is just what happens. But here you can +see that the ovary is not ripe. It is hard and green. When it is ripe +its color is yellow. But the pollen is ripe now, you can see it all +over the anthers, as the knobs or sacks are called. If the pollen +should fall upon the ovary now it would roll off without entering, and +would be wasted. Now what do you suppose happens?" + +"The--the--" + +Elsie hesitated, looking with very bright eyes at her mother, almost +sure enough to go on, but not quite. It seemed so peculiar, the +thought that had come to her, and she did not see just how it could +be. + +"You were going to say the bee, weren't you?" her mother smiled. + +"Oh yes--and would that have been right?" Elsie cried in delight. + +"Yes, that would have been exactly right. If we had been near enough +to examine the bee's motions closely we should have seen that he +alighted on the ovary, and then began to turn here and there in order +to get at the honey at the base of each petal. As he did so he brushed +off some of the pollen, for he was right in amongst the stamens, and +this powdery pollen stuck to his fuzzy body and he carried it away +with him." + +"But if he carried it away how could it get into the flower's ovary?" +Elsie asked, puzzled. + +"It did not get into this flower's ovary," her mother answered. +"Nature did not intend that it should, and that is why the bee is +introduced. For the other buttercup that he flew to, or some other +one that he would visit afterward, would have its ovary ripe, and when +he alighted on it in search of honey some of the pollen would be +brushed off his body right into this ovary that was all ready to +receive it." + +"Oh! But what would happen then? The little baby buttercups would +begin to grow right away, mamma?" + +"Yes, the ovary would close up and the seeds would begin to grow, very +slowly. They would keep on growing until they were ripe and then they +would burst their covering and fall out on the ground. Those of them +that were fortunate enough to become embedded in the soil, so that +they would not freeze in the winter, would come out in the spring as +little plants, which would soon bring forth buttercups. That is the +way with the wild flowers. But with the cultivated ones, like +cucumbers, apples, beans, and the like, all of those that are valuable +for eating, we are careful to save the seeds and plant them where they +will be safe. Instead of leaving them to chance we make a garden and +plant them in it where they will be snug and warm." + +"And wouldn't the seeds grow, or the little plants come up, if the bee +hadn't gone to the flowers, mamma?" + +"No, darling, it is the bee, or some other insect, or the birds, that +marry all the bright-colored plants in this way, as the wind marries +the soberhued ones. Without these we should have no vegetation." + +"But, mamma, marry! Why do you say they marry? I thought only men and +women married." + +"The marriage that takes place between men and women, dear, is only a +repetition of the marriage of plants. Its object is the same--to +reproduce the race. Plants began to marry long, long before men and +women ever came on earth and have been doing it ever since, +fortunately for us, because if they should give up the practice we +should have to follow suit. The earth would go back to the barren +state in which it was before life came to it." + +"It seems so strange," said Elsie. "Why, I never heard of anything so +funny! A bee, just a little bee, and without him--" + +"Funny is scarcely the word," Mrs. Edson smiled, "but it is certainly +wonderful. The pumpkin, the bean, the pear, the squash, the orange, +all the fruits and vegetables that we eat, and which the animals eat, +must be fertilized in order to reproduce their kind, and all the +fertilizing is done either by the wind, which blows the pollen from +one plant to another, or by birds and insects. But this is only a +small part of the secret I have to tell you, just the beginning. There +are many more wonderful things to come than I have told you yet, but I +think this is enough for the first time. You would better think over +what you have heard until tomorrow, when I will tell you the next +step, which is about the animals. There are four things in this lesson +that you must remember: + +"First, every male plant has at least one stamen, which bears pollen. + +"Second, every female plant has one ovary which contains seeds. + +"Third, the seeds in the ovary must be fertilized by the pollen in the +stamens in order to be able to grow and bear children. + +"Fourth, flowers are fertilized by birds, insects and the wind. + +"Do you think you can remember all that, darling?" + +"Oh, yes, mamma, I'm sure I can!" said Elsie. She thought a moment and +then added: "It was very nice of that bumble-bee to mistake my nose +for a flower, I'm sure, for it was almost as if he should say, +'Doesn't she look sweet--there must be honey there!' But I guess he +didn't think I was very sweet when I almost scared him to death, poor +fellow!" + + + + +V + +THE FIRST LIFE ON EARTH + + +The next day Elsie was so eager for the hour to come when she should +learn the secret of the animals that she had been waiting in the +hammock quite a little while when her mother came down stairs and as +soon as she appeared in sight Elsie clapped her hands joyously, crying +out: + +"Now I shall hear how the animals get their honey, sha'n't I, mumsey? +But, mumsey, there isn't anything like the petals of a buttercup on an +animal, unless it's his ears--do animals have their honey there--where +they join the body--like the buttercups?" + +Mrs. Edson could not help laughing at this funny notion. + +"No, darling," she answered, "animals have no honey anywhere. In the +plants there is honey because they must have something to attract the +insects to them, for they are rooted in the ground and can't move +around to carry their pollen to the other plants. And this pollen must +be carried, you remember, for that is the way, and the only way, in +which little ones are made to be born. So the flower has the honey in +order to pay the insect for marrying it. But animals can move around. +They can go to each other and carry their own pollen, so they do not +need honey or anything but themselves to attract each other. In +animals there is love instead of honey. They love each other, in their +way, and so come together and mingle their eggs and pollen. Only it +is not called pollen in animals, as I said before. It is called +_zoösperms_, pronounced 'zoo-o-sperms.' That is another name that you +must not forget, for it is to the animal what pollen is to the plant. +And in order that little animals may be born it is quite as necessary +that the zoösperms cover or fertilize the eggs, as, with the plants, +it is for the pollen to fertilize the seeds." + +"But, mamma," said Elsie, wonderingly, "you said, I think, that every +plant had an ovary--" + +"No, darling, I said that every _female_ plant had an ovary." + +"Oh, yes, female plant! That has an ovary, and every male plant has a +stamen, and I think you said that they must have, didn't you?" + +"Yes, dear, in order to reproduce their kind they must have--why?" + +"Well, then, does every male animal have a stamen and every female an +ovary?" + +"Certainly darling! And let me repeat that the products of the two +must be mingled in order to bring forth little animals. That is just +what I am going to tell you about today." + +"And do you mean, mamma, that honey in the plants grows into love in +the animals?" Elsie asked, her eyes very wide. + +"Oh, that is a very beautiful thought for my little girl to have!" +Mrs. Edson exclaimed, smoothing Elsie's hair lovingly. "And, yes, that +is the truth, put very poetically. Love is sweet, like the honey that +it replaces--at least it is for us human beings. Probably with the +animals it is not of just the same quality that it is with us, for +they do not act as if it were, but at least the animals are an +improvement on the plants in this respect, and the love that they feel +for each other finally evolves, in us, to become the sweet thing that +we find it to be." + +"Isn't that lovely--and so strange!" exclaimed Elsie. + +"Yes, darling, it is lovely, and very strange. There are various kinds +of love, as well as various degrees of the same kind, but this is a +subject a little too deep for us to take up just yet. What I wish now +is to teach you how the animals marry. And I will begin by saying that +all forms of reproduction, which is the name given to having +children, follow the same principle. The animals marry in a way that +is only a variation of the plant way, and men and women marry in a way +that is a variation of the plant and animal ways. But let us begin +right, with the first appearance of life on earth." + +"Yes, mamma," Elsie cried eagerly. "But the _first_ life! That must +have been very, very long ago, wasn't it?" + +"It was so far back in the history of the world that we can scarcely +more than guess how long ago it must have been. We do not even know +where it first appeared or just how it came to be. Some scientists +believe that it occurred at the mouth of the Nile River, in Africa, in +the rich soil that the river deposits there when it overflows its +banks. Others think it was in the sea, or along the shores of some +ocean in a tropical country. But we need not go into that here. What +we do know is that the hot sun, shining on a certain spot on the earth +or sea, which was just in the right condition, produced the first body +containing life that the globe ever had, and that this body was only a +little speck of jelly-like substance, which we call protoplasm, +pro-to-plas-m. The word means 'first growth', for it was the first +thing that ever appeared that was capable of growing. We also call it +a cell. Now there was only one cell in the world. It had no +companions. And what do you suppose happened?" + +"It must have been very lonesome," suggested Elsie, sympathetically. + +"Yes, it must have been--certainly it must if it could feel or think. +But, at all events, whether or not it did feel lonely, it began right +away to make companions. Of course you can't think how it did that, +can you, dear?" + +"I--I am afraid not," Elsie hesitated. + +"Yet it was the very simplest way imaginable. It merely divided itself +into two parts, each of which was just like the other." + +"Oh!" exclaimed Elsie. "But, then, mamma, who could tell which was the +father or mother, and which was the child? Or were they just brother +and sister, or two brothers?" + +"There was not then what we now call 'sex', for that was only the +beginning of families, so to say, and it was very crude, as all things +are when they are first started. But perhaps we might call one cell +the mother of the other, since it is always the female, and not the +male, that brings forth children, though nobody could tell which was +the mother and which was the child." + +"Well," said Elsie, "_that_ is the strangest thing yet!" + +"It seems so to us, because it is so different from our way of +reproducing, but it was the natural way, and the same process is going +on to this day. Even little girls are born in a manner which, though +it appears very different, is the same in principle, as we shall +see." + +"But, mamma, I thought that all living beings were obliged to have a +stamen or an ovary!" + +"So they are obliged, dear! This cell grew until it was too large and +heavy to be supported by its structure, or lack of structure, and then +it fell apart. Force, or growth, was the stamen here, and the cell +itself was the ovary." + +"Oh, then force or growth was the first stamen, mamma?" + +"No, darling, it was not, unless we should call growth the stamen of +today--which we might do, in a way. But the first stamen was, in form, +a ray of the sun, and the first ovary was the earth, soil. For don't +you recall that this cell, which was the first life-form, was produced +by the sun shining on the earth or sea?" + +Elsie pondered on this a moment. Then her face brightened. + +"Oh, now I see!" she exclaimed. "And what a beautiful set of changes, +like real poetry! The stamen in a flower, and growth, and a ray of +sunlight are all one at bottom!" + +"Yes, darling, it is beautiful poetry, when one comes thoroughly to +understand it. And when we find that love is the source of all these +different forms and processes it becomes more beautiful than ever. Now +let us go on a little further and you will see how that is." + +"Please hurry, mamma!" said Elsie. "I wish to find out where I came +from, and you are going to tell me that, aren't you?" + +"Certainly, darling! That is what I have been leading up to all this +time. Now we will speak of a number of higher growths than the single +cells are, for there are several things yet to be made plain before +you will be able to understand the highest growth of all, which is +that of a human being like yourself." + + + + +VI + +WHERE BABY ANIMALS COME FROM + + +At that moment there sounded a hoarse noise near by, which was +followed by a splash, as if some body had tumbled into the pond. Elsie +looked at her mother roguishly and said: + +"Old Croaky!" + +Old Croaky was a granddaddy bullfrog with whom they were very well +acquainted, for he sang for them every evening. + +"I am glad that he spoke just as he did," Mrs. Edson smiled, "for he +reminds me that frogs are as good an example as I can take next. He +belongs to one of the lower classes of animals, not so very much +higher than the plants. Now, in the plants, you will remember, it was +necessary for the pollen to enter the ovary in order to reach and +fertilize the seeds. But with the frog it is not so. The female lays +the eggs first, and just as she is doing so the male places himself in +such a position towards her that he can mingle his zoösperms with her +eggs as they come out. That fertilizes them and they immediately begin +to grow. First they become tadpoles, and then little frogs." + +"What, was Old Croaky ever a little tadpole, mumsey?" + +"Yes, darling, he was. Every frog was once. And before that he was an +egg, one of many, in his mother's ovary, and it is so with all +animals. They all of them have eggs and zoösperms, just as the plants +have pollen and seeds. Only, with most of the animals, the zoösperms +must enter the ovary in order to fertilize the eggs, as is the way of +the plants. And it is the same with the birds. They are higher, that +is later, in the scale of life than the frogs are. Now the higher the +creature the more complicated becomes the process of reproduction, +even though the principle is always the same. It is always growth, +always the life within, forcing itself out to take form, and it is +only the forms that change. The life and force within are the same +that the first single cell had." + +"It is very wonderful, mamma," Elsie said, awed by the mystery, even +though she was very far from grasping the whole of it. "And the birds, +mamma, have they stamens, and eggs inside? I thought their eggs were +outside, in a little nest. And some of them are, mumsey, because, you +know, I have seen them lots of times." + +"Yes, the eggs come out where you can see them, in time, as the frog's +do, but at first they are inside the mother bird, as they are with the +frogs and all animals. Only, it is not with the birds as it is with +the frogs, for the bird's eggs must be fertilized by the male +zoösperms while they are still within the mother bird. The zoösperms +must enter the ovary as the pollen must enter the ovary of the plant. +So the male bird, like most male animals, has a stamen which is a +repetition of that of the flower, made of such a shape that it can +reach the eggs in the mother bird's ovary and fertilize them there. +Then they come out, they are 'laid' as we say, and we see them in the +nest which the mother and father birds have prepared for them. And +just as the seeds need to be covered and kept warm, when they have +fallen from the ripe pods to the ground, in order that they may live +and grow into baby plants, so the bird's eggs must be covered and kept +warm and safe in order that they may grow into birdies. It is just +here that you may see where the honey of the plants begins to become +love in the higher species. For instead of leaving the eggs to be +protected or not, according to chance, as is the way of the plants, +the mother bird covers and warms and protects them herself. She sits +on the nest and keeps them safe with her own body and feathers. Isn't +that lovely! And the father bird goes to market in the woods and +fields and brings her the daintiest and best food he can find." + +"Isn't he _nice!_" said Elsie appreciatively. + +"Yes, he is nice, and so is his wife, the mother bird. Just think! A +bird is the most energetic and tireless creature in all animated +nature. It is always on the move, urged by the force and overflowing +life within its body, and to sit there quietly all alone on the eggs +day after day and night after night--oh, it must be hard, so hard that +we can scarcely realize the extent of the sacrifice she is making for +her little children. That is what love is like. And the higher a +creature is in the scale of life the more love it has, until, in men +and women, the acme is reached and they not only give up their +comfort for each other, and especially for their children, but even +their lives themselves. With human beings one can tell how high a +given one is in the scale of humanity by the amount of love he has. +Some persons have very little, and they are nearer the animal plane: +some have a great deal, and the more they have, the less selfish they +are, the higher they have risen. For love is the real stamen that +fertilizes the world and makes it grow, and the more one has of it the +more life one gives to the universe." + +Elsie felt very grave for some moments, thinking out this deep matter. +It was too complex for her to realize wholly, but she caught glimpses +of the immortal beauty of the ideas and she was awed by it. Suddenly +she threw her arms around her mother's neck and kissed her +passionately. It had occurred to her all at once how much her mother +loved her and how much she must have sacrificed for her sake during +all the years of her little life, and though she had no conception of +the full extent of the sacrifice she saw enough to make her feel like +crying for very love of that dear and sweet mamma. Her mother +understood her and taking her in her arms hugged her closely, sitting +in silence with her for a long time, both of them too full of love for +each other to speak. And so the lesson for the day ended. + + + + +VII + +WHERE BABY GIRLS COME FROM + + +"Now, mumsey," cried Elsie the next day, running to her mother at the +hour set aside for their baby-talks, "I know what comes next--it's I, +isn't it?" + +"Yes, darling, it's you. And it's I, too. Isn't that a beautiful +thought, that you and I held the same relation to each other that the +mother bird holds to the egg from which the birdies come! For once you +were a tiny, tiny egg inside mamma just as it was with the birds." + +"Oh-h!" gasped Elsie, gazing at her mother in bewilderment. She could +not realize such an astounding thing at once. + +"Yes, darling," Mrs. Edson went on, "every female human being has an +ovary, just as every female flower has, and just as every female bird +has; and, also like them, she has seeds or eggs in this ovary. And she +has a great many of them. They have been growing within her ever since +she was a baby, and when she is about twelve years old they begin to +ripen, one at a time, and pass from the ovary into a nest that is all +ready for them inside the female body. This nest we call the womb. At +first, while she is so young, the womb is not strong enough to hold +the egg while it grows, so the egg soon leaves its nest to come into +the world and be lost, as so very many seeds of the plant are. As it +does so it acts in such a way on the young girl that, when she first +becomes aware that something which seems strange is happening to her, +she is frightened and does not know what to do. And as you, darling, +are now at the age when this must come to you very soon, I am going to +prepare you for it, so that you may know that it is natural, coming to +all girls of about your age, and that there is nothing to be alarmed +over. All the talks that we have had were intended as a kind of +introduction to this event and its consequences, for it is the +greatest that enters a girl's life before she has grown fully to be a +woman. And you were once one of these tiny eggs. More than that, you +now have within your body, a great number of that very kind of eggs +from which you sprang." + +Elsie sat with her eyes in breathless interest on her mother, so +filled with wonder and speculation that she could not ask a single +question. Mrs. Edson proceeded: + +"I must repeat dear, because it is so very important for you to +remember, that every woman has an ovary which contains many seeds or +eggs, just as the female flower has. These eggs, if left unfertilized, +will pass from the body and never grow any more. But each one, if +fertilized by the papa, as the bird's eggs were, and as the flower +seeds were, will stay in a little nook inside the mother's body, where +it will grow and grow until the time comes for it to burst forth into +the world, following the same principle that the first cell followed +in reproducing, and which all living things follow always. The life +within forces it away from the parent, to become a separate growth. +Then it will come forth, and behold, the tiny seed or egg has grown to +be a baby girl or boy, weighing several pounds!" + +"Oh-h!" Elsie gasped again. "And that is how--how--I--came to be born, +mamma!" + +"Yes, darlingest, it is the way in which every living person was born. +There is not, and there cannot be, any other way. Each child is a part +both of its father and mother. The egg in the mother would never grow +into a baby unless it had first been fertilized by the father, who +does so through his great love for the mamma, just as with the birds +and animals, though his love is of a higher kind than that of the +lower orders." + +"And does the mother-woman warm the eggs as the bird in the nest does, +mamma, while the papa-man brings her nice things to eat?" + +"Yes, dearie, only the mother-woman has the nest inside her body, as I +have said, and she keeps the little one safe and warm there much +longer than the bird sits on her nest. And think of all the years +after the baby is born that she waits on and cares for it! There is no +other love that equals in devotion that of the mother." + +Elsie, without a word, her eyes swimming in tears, kissed her mother +affectionately. She had realized a little more of what she owed to +her. + +"Now," said Mrs. Edson, "I must tell you how to care for this nest in +which, by and by, when you have grown up and have a husband and are +strong enough, you will be keeping a little baby of your own. Because +many girls who become married do not know these things there is a +dreadful amount of sickness and misery in the world, all needless. And +it does seem too bad--when merely a few words at the right time would +have saved it all!" + +Of course Elsie was not old enough to understand how this could be, so +she said nothing, but sat looking earnestly at her mother as she went +on: + +"In the first place, dear, you must know that the little baby's nest, +which we call the womb, is placed in the lower portion of the woman's +body, just above the 'private parts'. Perhaps it is put there because +it is the safest place for it in the whole body--for the eggs and +womb are very delicate, and must not be exposed to any danger of +injury. So it grows in the interior of the trunk, where outside +dangers would be less likely to reach and spoil it, so that the woman +would be sick all her life and never have any children. Many hopeless +female complaints, ending with premature and painful death, are caused +by lack of proper care of the womb and its entrance. That care +consists chiefly in preventing the womb from being touched by +anything, and keeping the entrance clean. It is very simple--just keep +the entrance clean and the womb untouched by anything. An observance +of such slight rules as these would have saved many and many a poor +soul from a life of continual misery and suffering. + +"I have told you, dear, long ago how to keep the entrance clean. And +now that you will soon begin to menstruate, as the passing out of the +eggs is called, I shall have but little to add to what you already +know, but I will repeat it from the beginning in order that you may +have it all clear in your mind. + +"First, bathe the entrance every time you bathe the rest of your body, +and at such other times as you may feel the need of doing so. Never +neglect this. It may have evil consequences. Just keep it clean, and +never touch it for any other purpose. And be careful to use only your +own towels, for disease is easily communicated to these parts by +cloths that are not clean, and you never can be too careful in this +respect. It is plain enough, and easy enough to do, isn't it +darling--and you will always remember about it, won't you?" + +"Oh, yes, mamma, that is easy enough!" Elsie said quickly. "I could +remember a lot more than that, I'm sure." + +"It would have been so infinitely much better for so many poor sick +creatures if they had known and remembered even that!" Mrs. Edson +sighed, holding her little daughter closely, as if she would protect +her from not only that harm but all others. "But," she continued, "I +must now tell you what you may be expecting to come to you before +long, when it will be harder to keep the entrance clean than it has +been so far, and when to keep it clean will be more necessary than +ever. + +"Every twenty-eight days, dearie, beginning with you very soon now, +there will be a flow of blood into the little baby's nest, the womb, +and this will come out of your body through this entrance to the womb. +As soon as you see any signs of it on your body or clothing you must +come right and tell me, as you would if you had cut your finger or +stubbed your toe on a stone. It is something to be very proud of for +it shows the possibility of motherhood, and it must be given the very +best care, which is, as I have said, chiefly to keep the parts clean. +By and by when you are grown old enough and strong enough, and have a +husband, who will fertilize the eggs, one of them will grow into a +little baby, but it will be a long time yet before that can be, and +until then you will have this flow every twenty-eight days, for the +sake of your health. This brings more work for the womb to do, while +the menses, as they are called, continue, and therefore you may feel +out of sorts both mentally and bodily for two or three days. But this +will pass away when the flow ceases, and if proper care is taken of +the womb and passages you will never feel anything worse than this. +Some women feel great pain at this time, but almost always the reason +is that some of their internal parts have been injured in one way or +another. Sometimes lack of proper food, sufficient fresh air and sun, +or not enough exercise and clean water are responsible for a portion +of the pain. In order to have strong reproductive organs a woman +should be healthy in all bodily ways, and anything that she can do to +improve her general health will be favorable to her at the time of +the menses as well as at all times. Do you think you understand all +this, darling, and can remember it?" + +"I don't know, mamma," said Elsie hesitatingly. "There is a lot to it, +but I'll try." + +"That is my dear little girl! To try is the next thing to doing. Only +remember that when you don't know what to do, and have tried, come to +mamma. That is one great reason why mammas are--to help little girls +who have tried." + +Elsie kissed her mother warmly, and then sat looking dreamily out +towards the woods. She had learned many strange things and was +thinking them over. Suddenly she spoke, as if unconsciously, saying: +"Who would ever have thought that so much could come out of it!" + +"Out of what?" her mother asked. + +"Why, out of a bee trying to step on my nose!" said Elsie. + +(The End.) + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Every Girl's Book, by George F. 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Butler. +</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + p {margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: 0.5em;} + body {margin-left: 11%; margin-right: 10%;} + a {text-decoration: none;} + @media screen { + hr.pb {margin:30px 0; width:100%; border:none;border-top:thin dashed silver;} + .pagenum {display: inline; font-size: x-small; text-align: right; position: absolute; right: 2%; padding: 1px 3px; font-style: normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; text-decoration: none; background-color: inherit; border:1px solid #eee;} + .pncolor {color: silver;} + } + @media print { + hr.pb {border:none;page-break-after: always;} + .pagenum { display:none; } + } + h3 {font-size:1.0em;} + h1,h2,h3 {text-align:center; font-weight:normal;} + p.tp {font-size:1em; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0; text-align:center;} + .caption {font-size:smaller;} + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + h1 {font-size:1.4em;} + hr.major {width: 65%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; clear:both;} + h2 {font-size:1.2em;} +</style> + +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Every Girl's Book, by George F. Butler + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Every Girl's Book + +Author: George F. Butler + +Release Date: May 14, 2009 [EBook #28812] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EVERY GIRL'S BOOK *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h1>EVERY GIRL’S BOOK</h1> +<hr class='pb' /> +<p class='tp' style='margin-top:50px;font-size:2em;margin-bottom:60px;'>EVERY GIRL’S<br />BOOK</p> +<p class='tp' style='margin-bottom:80px;font-size:1em;'>BY<br />GEORGE F. BUTLER, M. D.</p> +<p class='tp' >1912</p> +<p class='tp' style='font-size:1.2em;'>THE ABBOTT PRESS</p> +<p class='tp' >RAVENSWOOD</p> +<p class='tp' style='letter-spacing:.2em;'>CHICAGO</p> +<hr class='pb' /> +<p class='tp' style='font-size:smaller;'>Copyright 1912<br />THE ABBOTT PRESS<br />CHICAGO</p> +<hr class='pb' /> +<p style='margin-left:0.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:center'><span class='tp' style='font-size:larger;'>PUBLISHER’S NOTES</span><br /></p> +<p>This is the second of a series of books +on “How to Live,” by Dr. George F. +Butler. These books range from childhood +to old age. The boy and the +girl, the young man and young woman, +the young husband and young wife, +middle-aged people, and old people are +instructed in these books in matters +of the utmost importance to their health +and happiness. The first in this series +was “Every Boy’s Book.” These two +books are especially intended for boys +and girls from ten to fourteen years of +age, but every father and mother should +read them, so they, too, can know +the truth about these great sex facts, +and be prepared to answer children’s +questions—now sometimes troublesome.</p> +<hr class='pb' /> +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> +<table border='0' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='Contents' style='margin:1em auto;'> +<tr> + <td align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'><span style='font-size:small;'>Chapter</span></td> + <td></td> + <td align='right'><span style='font-size:small;'>Page</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>I.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>How the Story Began</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#I_HOW_THE_STORY_BEGAN'>1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>II.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>What the Bee Wanted of Elsie’s Nose</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#II_WHAT_THE_BEE_WANTED_OF_ELSIES_NOSE'>10</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>III.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Husbands and Wives of Plants</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#III_THE_HUSBANDS_AND_WIVES_OF_PLANTS'>21</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>IV.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The Papa and Mamma Parts of the Plants</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#IV_THE_PAPA_AND_MAMMA_PARTS_OF_THE_PLANTS'>34</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>V.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>The First Life on Earth</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#V_THE_FIRST_LIFE_ON_EARTH'>43</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>VI.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Where Baby Animals Come From</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#VI_WHERE_BABY_ANIMALS_COME_FROM'>54</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td valign='top' align='right' style='padding-right:1em;'>VII.</td> + <td valign='top' align='left' style='padding-right:4em;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Where Baby Girls Come From</span> </td> + <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#VII_WHERE_BABY_GIRLS_COME_FROM'>62</a></td> +</tr> +</table> +<hr class='pb' /> +<h3>PREFACE</h3> +<p>The greatest duty of mankind lies +in the proper uprearing of our children. +The fact is recognized, but is the duty +fulfilled? Do we rear our children as +we should? There is but one answer: +We fail. Teaching them many things +for their good, we yet keep from them +ignorantly, foolishly, with a hesitancy +and neglect unpardonable—knowledge, +the possession of which is essential for +their future welfare.</p> +<p>The first necessity for well-being is +a healthy mind in a healthy body. We +can give our children that, if we will, +by teaching them all about the body, +its source of life, its different functions, +and its care. The child should grow +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_ii' name='page_ii'></a>ii</span> +to maturity knowing that the human +body is something fine, something that +accomplishes good, something to be proud +of in every way. Above all should the +child be taught all concerning the process +of reproduction, just as it is taught the +action of the stomach or of the brain. +By so doing, we can produce a better +and healthier and happier generation to +follow ours. By what strange and mistaken +impulse in the past such absolutely +required teaching has been so studiously +withheld is beyond all comprehension.</p> +<p>We want the best for our children. +We want them to grow up with right +thoughts and habits, yet we keep from +them the knowledge without which their +thoughts and habits will surely be imperiled +when there arises in them the +generative instinct, which has its effect +upon both male and female youth alike. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_iii' name='page_iii'></a>iii</span></p> +<p>We give them no information as to +sexual matters; and, when it comes to +them, it is too often but in the way of +half-truths, mysterious, exciting to the +imagination, and dangerous.</p> +<p>Yet how simple and natural the giving +of this information might be made; +and how easily the child might be safeguarded! +Mankind has demands which +must be gratified. We have hunger; +we have thirst; we have the impulse of +reproduction. Each is right and natural. +There should be no difference in the +consideration of either of these wants. +All about them the child should be +taught, from the beginning, so that all +will be natural and right and commonplace +and a matter of course long before +the age is reached when the sexual +instinct is developed.</p> +<p>Is not this reason? Is it not healthful, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_iv' name='page_iv'></a>iv</span> +logical, common sense? Is it not the +wholesome and right and proper view?</p> +<p>Nature is devoted to reproduction. +From the cell to the flower, and so on +upward, the creatures of the world are +but renewing themselves, and the learning +of this is the greatest and most +beautiful of all studies. All this the +child can be taught.</p> +<p>Elementary biology, or the study of +subjects of what we call zoology and +botany combined, can be made the +most attractive of studies to any child +who has learned to read. The boy +or girl may be taught that the trees +and flowers are living things that are +beautiful and are male and female. The +child may be shown how the bees carry +the pollen from flower to flower, and +how other plants and flowers are produced +in that way. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_v' name='page_v'></a>v</span></p> +<p>He can be taught the wonder of seed, +and its consequences. He can be shown +the birds in their mating, and the marvel +of the egg, and why it can produce a +chicken. And thus the child, boy or girl, +may be led on, through the gradations, to +a study of the human body, and how +reproduction is provided for there as +in the bodies of all other living things, +vegetable or animal.</p> +<p>Before the child, boy or girl, has reached +the age of ten, long before the sex +instinct has been aroused, the sexual lesson +will have been learned innocently and +thoroughly and, when the change comes, +it will be as no bewildering, exciting thing, +but something anticipated, and received +with a sense of understanding and +responsibility.</p> +<p>This knowledge almost unknowingly +acquired as a child, will mean health +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_vi' name='page_vi'></a>vi</span> +of mind and of body, and the avoidance +of what may result most evilly.</p> +<p>How is sexual instruction given now? +In tens of thousands of instances—no +doubt in the majority—not at all. Lectures +to youth of either sex are given +sometimes, but only when they have +reached what is called “the age of understanding.”</p> +<p>Here is where parents err, and seriously. +The teaching has been deferred too long. +The young of either sex, long before +puberty, have acquired some knowledge +of the mystery—which should have been +no mystery at all—and late teaching, +however sound and wise, but gives an +added and inviting direction to the +subject suddenly made to assume a +new and startling importance. It arouses +curiosity, and more. It may sometimes +be harmful. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_vii' name='page_vii'></a>vii</span></p> +<p>As for the youth never taught at all, +those who acquire their knowledge only +through accidental sources—usually incapable, +and too often vicious—their +case could not be worse. They are unprepared +for one of the tests and demands +for life. Their parents are guilty.</p> +<p>There is nothing impure in nature. +To guard the children, to prepare them +for every phase of life, is the parents’ +duty. The child is pure, and to the +child all things are pure. Teach the +child, simply as a matter of course, all +about the ways of reproduction, and +to the boy or girl purity will remain +when the age of sexual sway and impulse +comes. This is the only law in the case. +Let it be followed, and the generation +to follow will be clearer, wiser, and +healthier than is the present one. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_viii' name='page_viii'></a>viii</span></p> +<p>It is my hope that this “Every Girl’s +Book” (with “Every Boy’s Book” which +preceded it) will afford the means so +long needed and desired for teaching +children what they should be taught. +I have tried to tell the story of sex +naturally, in a clear and simple way, +from the development of life, and +of life’s relations, from protoplasm all +through organic life up to mankind. +Its teachings should result in wide +promotion of the innocence of knowledge +which is better, infinitely, than +the imperiling innocence of ignorance.</p> +<p style='margin-left:0.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:right'><span style='margin-right: 0.78125em;'>George F. Butler, M. D.</span><br /></p> +<p style='margin-left:0.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:left'><span style='margin-left: 0.78125em;'>Chicago, Ill.</span><br /> +<span style='margin-left: 2.0em;'>July 1, 1912.</span><br /></p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_1' name='page_1'></a>1</span> +<a name='I_HOW_THE_STORY_BEGAN' id='I_HOW_THE_STORY_BEGAN'></a> +<h2>I</h2> +<h3>HOW THE STORY BEGAN</h3> +</div> +<p>Her name was Elsie and she was +asleep in a cozy nook in the woods, +which was the beginning of it all.</p> +<p>Many strange things may happen to +a little girl who falls asleep in the woods, +but there never happened to any other +little girl, either asleep or awake, in the +woods or at home, a more important +thing than that which had its start for +Elsie while she lay there under the +green boughs beside a bubbling spring +of crystal-clear water, the scent of pines +and flowers sweetening the still air. A +robin redbreast whistled melodiously for +“rain, rain, rain,” and the cows in the +pasture, who do not like rain as well as +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_2' name='page_2'></a>2</span> +they do sunshine, lifted up their voices +in protest, calling “oo-oo-ohh! moo-oo-hh! +noo-oo-hh!” as if they were trying to say +“no, no, no!” and could not speak the +English language well. It was a peaceful +woodland scene, a scene into which, if +you were awake, you would expect that a +railroad train would be about the last +thing that could possibly enter.</p> +<p>But Elsie was asleep, and in her +dreams she was sure she saw a great +locomotive engine charging down upon +her with frightful speed. As soon as she +saw it she tried to cry out, but could not +do so. Somehow she could not send a +single sound from her lips. Then she +tried to jump out of the way, but was +unable to do that either. She could not +even move in the slightest degree. So, +full of terror, she thought she stood there, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_3' name='page_3'></a>3</span> +helplessly, while the engine rushed nearer +and nearer, puffing forth vast clouds of +black smoke, and roaring and hissing +and clanking. Again she tried to scream, +and could not: again she tried to run +aside, but could not move. She seemed +so small, so tiny and weak, beside that +monster! And she wondered how it +could possibly bear to hurt her, a big, +powerful thing like that—it was not fair! +But—bang! The cowcatcher caught her +up—</p> +<p>And she awoke to see a fuzzy bumble-bee +just alighting on her nose!</p> +<p>Though Elsie did not, as a general +thing, care much for bumble-bees, and +would rather have their room than their +company, she was so highly relieved to +find that the gigantic engine was <i>only</i> a +bumble-bee that she said, “Oh!” with +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_4' name='page_4'></a>4</span> +such violence of surprise and gladness +that the bee, doubtless as much afraid +of her as she had been of the dream-engine, +shot out of sight in an instant +and she never saw him afterward, that +she knew of.</p> +<p>She sat a moment staring after him, +trying to collect herself, for she was +confused with her sudden awakening, +and then she jumped up laughing.</p> +<p>“What a funny bumble-bee!” she exclaimed. +“<i>I</i> wouldn’t have hurt him!” +Then in conscious dignity, proud to +think that she was now big enough for +something to be afraid of, she took up the +pail of water that she had come to get +from the spring and hurried homeward.</p> +<p>Now if this were all the story it would +not amount to much, and it never would +have got itself told in these pages. And, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_5' name='page_5'></a>5</span> +if Elsie had been like some girls, who are +not chums with their mothers, the story +would never have been told here either, +because she would not have repeated the +adventure to her mamma, in which case +her mamma would not have taken the +story up where the daughter left it, and +shown its importance. But Elsie and +her mother were like two sisters, a big +and a little one, and there were not many +things that happened to the one that +the other did not hear of very soon. +So away went Elsie singing and laughing +and swinging her pail of water, her +bright hair blowing in wisps around her +sweet face with its red lips and cheeks +and white teeth, the prettiest, loveliest +picture in the whole lovely landscape of +foliage and flowers and pastures and +meadows. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_6' name='page_6'></a>6</span></p> +<p>Nobody in the world ever yet found a +prettier picture anywhere than a fresh +and clean girl is, as everybody will admit +if asked, and Elsie was fresh and clean +even if she had just been rudely aroused +from sleep. She bathed her whole body +twice every day, washed her face and +hands often, brushed her teeth always +after eating, smiled a great deal, and +got plenty of fresh air and sunshine, +and this was enough to make any girl +fresh and clean and pretty, or almost +enough.</p> +<p>Of course a girl must eat sufficient +food, and must brush her hair and take +care of her nails, and all those little +things—everybody knows that. But the +main things, beside food, the things, too, +that some little girls fail in, are air, sunshine, +water and smiles. Elsie had all +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_7' name='page_7'></a>7</span> +these and therefore she looked clean and +fresh and pretty.</p> +<p>She had on a dress too, naturally, but +I don’t know just what kind of a one it +was, for that is a small matter compared +with the body itself. I think it was some +kind of a calico, made for vacation +frolicing, for Elsie was a city girl staying +in the country for the summer, and almost +anything was good enough for that.</p> +<p>So Elsie, fresh and clean, dancing and +singing up the lane, swinging her pail of +crystal water, the loveliest sight in the +whole lovely landscape, came in view of +the house where they were staying. +And no sooner had she caught a glimpse +of her mother on the porch than, eager +to tell her funny experience, she ran +forward in pleasant excitement, crying +out: +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_8' name='page_8'></a>8</span></p> +<p>“Oh, mamma! Such a queer thing—Oh, +Oh, it was an engine, the biggest, +biggest you ever saw—and—and it +stepped on my nose—I mean it was only +a bumble-bee and—it—it almost ran +right over me—”</p> +<p>“Isn’t my little girl somewhat mixed +in her speech!” smiled her mother as +Elsie paused for breath.</p> +<p>“I—I guess I—I am!” Elsie faltered. +“But then, I’m so excited!”</p> +<p>“Yes, you are excited,” smiled her +mother, putting her arm around her +shoulders and walking with her to the +kitchen. “And when you are calm you +may tell me all about it.”</p> +<p>So Elsie carried the pail of water to +the sink and set it on its shelf. And when +she had worked off her surplus energy +in this way she felt sober enough to tell +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_9' name='page_9'></a>9</span> +her story clearly, and she did so, snuggled +in her mother’s arms in the hammock on +the porch. She finished by saying:</p> +<p>“Wasn’t that a funny thing, mamma, +that I should dream that the bumble-bee +was an engine just going to run over me!”</p> +<p>Then the really important part of the +story began. Her mother answered:</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_10' name='page_10'></a>10</span> +<a name='II_WHAT_THE_BEE_WANTED_OF_ELSIES_NOSE' id='II_WHAT_THE_BEE_WANTED_OF_ELSIES_NOSE'></a> +<h2>II</h2> +<h3>WHAT THE BEE WANTED OF ELSIE’S NOSE</h3> +</div> +<p>“Yes, it may seem funny, but it is +natural. When you were asleep +you heard the bee buzzing and rumbling, +and the sound reminded you of an +engine, so you began to picture an engine +in your mind, and with the queer mixture +of fact and fancy that are common to +dreams you thought it was coming right +at you. And it was only a bumble-bee +taking a look at your little red-and-white +nose.”</p> +<p>Elsie clapped her hands and laughed. +Then she asked:</p> +<p>“What did the bee want to see my +nose for, mamma?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_11' name='page_11'></a>11</span></p> +<p>“He thought, perhaps, that it was some +new kind of a bud, and he wished to +examine it,” Mrs. Edson smiled. “A +little girl’s face is very much like a pretty +flower. Your hair was tumbled all about +your head, I suppose, and your little +rosebud of a nose, peeking through, +attracted the bee.”</p> +<p>At this idea Elsie laughed again, +joyously.</p> +<p>“But, mamma,” she asked, “why +should the bee wish to see my nose, +even if he did think it might be a flower? +Do bees eat flowers, mamma?”</p> +<p>Elsie’s mother threw her a sudden +look that was almost a startled one. +Then she hugged her close and kissed her.</p> +<p>“What a great big little girl you are +getting to be, darling!” she said, gazing +fondly at her. This did not seem to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_12' name='page_12'></a>12</span> +Elsie much like an answer to her question, +and she fixed her eyes brightly on +her mother’s face as if waiting for her to +go on with her words. But her mother +only said: “I scarcely realized that you +were no longer my little baby-girl, and +that you were instead almost a young +lady, old enough to understand many +new things, among them the reason why +a bee goes to flowers.”</p> +<p>She paused again, looking at her big +little girl wistfully. She was thinking: +“Elsie has begun to be a woman now, +and I shall soon, all too soon, lose my +baby-girl, for she will grow up and marry +and go away to a home of her own and +have a little girl like herself, just as I have +had her!”</p> +<p>This made her feel sad, but she said +nothing to Elsie of this feeling, for she +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_13' name='page_13'></a>13</span> +would not be able to understand it and +it would only make her feel sad too. +By and by she would tell her what it +meant to have a husband and children +and home of her own, after her parents +were passed away, and she must begin +to prepare her for this knowledge now. +So, finally, she said:</p> +<p>“No, darling, bees do not eat flowers, +though they eat a part of them, or a product +of them. The most important thing +that they visit flowers for, as far as the +world is concerned, is to fertilize them.”</p> +<p>“Fer-fer-ilize!” stammered Elsie. +“What is that, mamma?”</p> +<p>“Not ferferilize, darling, but fertilize, +fer-til-ize, which means to make rich, +or fruitful. As strange as it may seem +the bees and other insects are of vast +importance to men—sh-h!” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_14' name='page_14'></a>14</span></p> +<p>She suddenly held up her hand, motioning +for silence, and Elsie, wondering what +was coming, followed her mother’s pointing +finger with her eyes. What she saw +was a bee hovering over a bright yellow +buttercup that grew almost within reach +of where she sat.</p> +<p>“Watch him!” whispered her mother.</p> +<p>Elsie did so, holding her breath for +fear of scaring him away. He alighted +on the flower, crawled clumsily over it +for a second or two, pausing now and +then to bury his head in the blossom, +but he did not do anything else, that +Elsie could see, except to tumble about +very awkwardly and funnily and then +fly away to another buttercup and repeat +the operation. Elsie drew a long +breath and looked at her mother inquiringly. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_15' name='page_15'></a>15</span></p> +<p>“It did not seem as if he did much, did +it, dearie!” she said in answer to the +look. “But in reality he did a great deal, +for he—what shall I say—married? Yes, +married! The bee actually married those +two buttercups together, so that next +season, when these two flowers, the papa +and mamma, are dead and gone, there +will spring up and grow other buttercups, +baby-plants, the children of these two. +If it were not for the bee, or other insects, +we should have no bright flowers in the +world.”</p> +<p>“Oh!” Elsie’s eyes opened wide. She +thought a moment, then, “Could he +marry my nose to anything?” she burst +forth. But seeing the absurdity of the +notion before the words were fairly out +of her mouth she joined in her mother’s +laughter over it. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_16' name='page_16'></a>16</span></p> +<p>“No, dearie, of course not. It is only +flowers that bees marry together. And +not the least strange thing about it is +that they do not know they are doing so.”</p> +<p>“Don’t know what they are doing!” +exclaimed Elsie.</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, they know what they are +doing for themselves, but they can’t +have the least notion of what they are +doing for the flowers and indeed for the +whole world! Without plants there +could be no life of any kind on earth. It +is the plants that produce life. Through +them come animals, and even men and +women and little girls. The plants feed +on the earth and air, which men and +animals cannot do. A man or a lamb +cannot eat the soil or live on air, but a +plant lives by eating the minerals and +gases and water of the earth and air, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_17' name='page_17'></a>17</span> +the man and the lamb eat the plants, +and so are able to live. Without the +plants we could not exist, and without +the insects, which fertilize the plants, +so that they can grow, the plants themselves +would soon die. Don’t you think +now that what the bee did was quite an +important matter, even if it did seem so +trivial?”</p> +<p>“Ye-yes,” Elsie hesitated. She did +not yet grasp the full depth of her +mother’s words. They meant so much! +“But,” she continued, her bright eyes +eagerly turned on her mother’s face, “we +don’t eat the buttercup, mamma, do we?”</p> +<p>“No, sweetie, but we do eat very gladly +a part of it, and that is the part that the +bee visited the flower for, and which he +took away as his fee for marrying the +two. Can you guess what it is?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_18' name='page_18'></a>18</span></p> +<p>The idea of a bee performing a marriage +between flowers and taking a fee for it +was a little too much for Elsie, and when +it was added that she and her mother +ate this fee such a look of amazement +came into her sweet face that her mother +could not help smiling broadly.</p> +<p>“It is the honey, little girlie,” she +said. “The bee takes the honey from +the flower and carries it home to the hive, +where he stores it up until he has a great +mass of it, and then the bee-man gets it +and sells it to the grocer, who sells it to +us.”</p> +<p>“W-e-l-l!” said Elsie slowly, “if that +isn’t strange!” She sat a moment +thinking of this miracle, her mother +watching her lovingly and considering +what she ought to say next, for she had a +great secret to tell her little daughter, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_19' name='page_19'></a>19</span> +a secret so great and important that +much wise thought was required to study +out just how to make it plain to a girl +as young as Elsie. Besides, she was +interested to know what Elsie herself +would say next, for she was bringing her +up to think logically, so that she might +know always how to ask the right question +at the right time, instead of the +wrong one. And she was very much +pleased when Elsie, instead of putting +the last question first, as some little girls +would have done, put the right one first +by saying:</p> +<p>“But, mamma, how <i>can</i> flowers marry! +And how can a bee possibly marry +them?”</p> +<p>This was the right question to ask first, +even if it was a kind of double-headed +one, because this marriage was the first +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_20' name='page_20'></a>20</span> +of the wonders that had amazed her, and +the answer to it would lead logically to +the fee and the honey eaten by people, +and these questions would be easier to +make plain after the first one was +answered.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_21' name='page_21'></a>21</span> +<a name='III_THE_HUSBANDS_AND_WIVES_OF_PLANTS' id='III_THE_HUSBANDS_AND_WIVES_OF_PLANTS'></a> +<h2>III</h2> +<h3>THE HUSBANDS AND WIVES OF PLANTS</h3> +</div> +<p>Mrs. Edson drew a long breath +because she knew the time had +arrived when, for her little daughter’s +sake, she must give her the information +which would mark her growth from girlhood +into young womanhood, and the +fact disturbed her, for she did not want +to lose her little girl, even in exchange +for the lovely young lady whom she +knew would take that dear little girl’s +place. But it must be done, and, thankful +that she had studied the subject +enough to know how to do it in a nice +and plain way, she began: +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_22' name='page_22'></a>22</span></p> +<p>“In the first place, dear,” she said, +“you must know that the flowers are +the husbands and wives of plants, made +so by nature. They are in their way as +truly married as Mr. and Mrs. Jones are +in their way, or as your papa and I are. +This marriage is a law of nature, invented +to carry on the race, whatever that race +may be, whether it is that of mankind, +or plants, or animals, or birds, or even +fishes. For not only do men and flowers +marry, everything in nature does the +same—turtles, frogs, robins, elephants, +everything!”</p> +<p>Elsie wished very much at this point +to ask if her mother had ever seen an +elephant’s wife, thinking that she must +look rather funny, much different, to +say the least, from a flower’s wife, but +as the answer came to her at once, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_23' name='page_23'></a>23</span> +without asking the question, she said +nothing. Of course an elephant’s wife +must be another elephant, as the flower’s +wife was another flower. But it was all +very singular, and the sparkle of her eyes +as she looked into her mother’s face +showed her interest in what might be +coming. Mrs. Edson went on:</p> +<p>“We will begin with plants, because +they came first into the world as living +beings, and all other living beings not +only had their origin in plants but live +by aid of them to this day. From the +plants grew animals, and from animals +grew men and women and little girls. +It took a long, long time for all this to +come about, so long that the human mind +fails to grasp or comprehend it; and at +first, when one hears of it for the first +time, it seems wholly impossible and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_24' name='page_24'></a>24</span> +unbelievable. But science has proved +it to be true, and even shows the exact +way in which the various changes were +made. Many, if not all, the steps by +which we mounted from the condition +of a tiny speck of jelly-plant, a speck no +bigger than the point of a pin, to become +human beings are still in existence and +are frequently observed by scientists. +With a microscope anybody may see +them. So we know that the theory of +evolution, as it is called, is a true one. +It is also an exceedingly wonderful and +beautiful truth, full of secrets and surprises +of the most interesting and delightful +kind, as I shall show. Now let’s +go and examine the buttercup that the +bee just married to the second buttercup.”</p> +<p>Elsie jumped up with a little gurgle of +joy and ran ahead of her mother to the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_25' name='page_25'></a>25</span> +flower. This was better than playing +“secret” with Rosie and Eva and the +other girls, for their secrets were not real +ones, they were just made up and they +did not amount to very much after all, +but this was a real one, kept up in earnest +with the bees and flowers. And now +she was to be let into it! Mrs. Edson +bent over the bright yellow blossom, +taking it gently in her fingers to prevent +it from nodding so briskly in the breeze +that they should be unable to examine it +closely.</p> +<p>“You see, dear,” she said, pointing +with a twig to the different parts as she +named them, “right here, in the exact +center of the blossom, is a bunch of green +growing in the form of an oval, shaped +somewhat like an egg with the smaller +end upward.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_26' name='page_26'></a>26</span></p> +<p>“Yes, oh, yes!” Elsie answered eagerly. +“What is it, mamma?”</p> +<p>“Broadly speaking we will call it the +ovary. I am not going to confuse you +by giving you too many hard words at +first, words like corolla, carpel, style, +stigma, and the like. I shall name only +two parts of the flower for you to remember +just now, because only two are really +necessary to be named at this point. +So the name of this one is—what?”</p> +<p>“Ovary!” answered Elsie quickly.</p> +<p>“Yes, ovary! It is called so because +it contains ovules, which are tiny seeds +or eggs. That is the mother part of the +plant.”</p> +<p>“The mother!” Elsie queried. “Why, +mamma, is there a father too?”</p> +<p>“Yes, dearie, many plants have both +a mother and a father part, which grow +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_27' name='page_27'></a>27</span> +near together in the same flower, while +other plants have only a father part, and +still others have only a mother part. +This buttercup has both, has both the +male and the female principle. The +ovary is the female, and here, above it +and surrounding it, you see a number of +taller spires, yellow in color and each of +them bearing a tiny enlargement, a kind +of knob, at the top.”</p> +<p>“Yes, yes, but that—that can’t be the +papa part! Is it, mamma?” she cried, +examining the rather insignificant appearing +spires dubiously. “They don’t look +much like a—a papa!” she said in some +disappointment. Her mother laughed.</p> +<p>“They certainly do not look much like +a man-papa,” she returned, “but they +form the papa part of the plant, nevertheless, +and are truly the papas of the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_28' name='page_28'></a>28</span> +baby buttercups. And their name is the +second one that I wish you to remember +from now on. It is stamen.”</p> +<p>“Stamen!” said Elsie.</p> +<p>“Yes, each of these stems is called a +stamen, and they form the male part of +the plant, the father part. Many plants, +those of the simpler kinds, have only one +stamen and it grows in the flower so that +its head hangs right above the ovary. +Here you see that all of the stamens are +above the ovary, and the reason why +they are placed there by nature you +will see very soon. What I wish now is +to show you why the bee came to the +flower.”</p> +<p>“I know—it was for honey! Isn’t +that what you said before, mamma?”</p> +<p>“Yes, darling, but do you see any +honey here?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_29' name='page_29'></a>29</span></p> +<p>“No, mamma, and I never knew before +that buttercups had honey. I always +thought honey came from a beehive.”</p> +<p>“It does come to us from a beehive, +but it comes from flowers first, and one +of the many kinds that furnish it is this +buttercup. The bee sips it from the +flowers, just a tiny bit from each blossom +that he visits, and when he has enough +he takes it home to the hive and puts it +away to eat by-and-by, in the winter, +when there are no flowers growing for +him to rifle. He does it just as men lay +away money for ‘a rainy day,’ as we say, +and as squirrels lay up a store of nuts for +the cold weather. Now, suppose you +count those flattened, round-cornered +parts of the buttercup—how many are +there?”</p> +<p>“Five,” said Elsie quickly. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_30' name='page_30'></a>30</span></p> +<p>“Yes, there are five of them, and they +are called petals. You will notice that +they are much narrower and slighter at +the bottom than they are at the top. +It is at the bottom that they are joined +to the central part of the flower. Now, +just where they are connected with this +central part there is a tiny sack of +honey.”</p> +<p>“It must be <i>very</i> tiny,” said Elsie, regarding +the slender connection earnestly, +“for there isn’t room enough for much, +I’m sure. And it must be all covered up, +for I can’t see any signs of it.”</p> +<p>“It is covered up. There is a very +small scale, or leaf, over it to protect it +from those insects who have no right to +the honey. But the bee knows how to +get at it, and he does so very quickly, +once he alights on the blossom, as we +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_31' name='page_31'></a>31</span> +have just seen one do. For while he +appeared as if he were merely tumbling +clumsily around on the flower he was +sampling those honey-sacks, and we saw +how speedily he finished all five of them +on this flower and then buzzed busily +away to the other.”</p> +<p>“He was just the same as at dinner, +then, wasn’t he mamma! But why did +he go to the other flower—didn’t he get +all he wanted from this one?”</p> +<p>“No, darlingest, he gets but very little +from each flower. If he could take all +he wanted from one he would never fly +right to another. And then, if all the +other insects should do the same, the +whole plan of nature would fall through +and there would soon be no life on earth.”</p> +<p>Elsie’s eyes looked very large when +she heard this. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_32' name='page_32'></a>32</span></p> +<p>“Would I die, and you, mamma, and +all of us—Alice and Rosie, and, oh, +everybody we know?”</p> +<p>“Yes, dearie, all of us. Those few +simple plants which still, in the primitive +way, fertilize themselves, are not enough +and are too weak to carry on the vegetation +of the earth, and without the insects +and birds and the wind we never should +have been born at all; for they are +necessary to make the plants reproduce +their kinds and grow, and the plants are +necessary food for us as well as for the +animals that we eat, such as the hens and +ducks and sheep and cows. So nature +has given each flower only a little honey, +not enough for the bee, and he is compelled +to fly to many before he becomes +satisfied. And this brings us back to +the stamen and ovary again, to show +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_33' name='page_33'></a>33</span> +what they are for and how the bee +marries the two plants together after he +has collected his fee of delicious honey.”</p> +<p>“I am all ’tention,” said Elsie, in so +quaint an imitation of older folks that +her mother was forced to smile, knowing +that she had a listener that was interested, +to say the least—a listener who felt the +importance and gravity of the study +which they were now pursuing. Elsie +never attempted big words except when +she felt dignified.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_34' name='page_34'></a>34</span> +<a name='IV_THE_PAPA_AND_MAMMA_PARTS_OF_THE_PLANTS' id='IV_THE_PAPA_AND_MAMMA_PARTS_OF_THE_PLANTS'></a> +<h2>IV</h2> +<h3>THE PAPA AND MAMMA PARTS OF THE PLANTS</h3> +</div> +<p>“Now,” said Mrs. Edson, taking hold +of the buttercup again, “you see +here, at the top of each stamen, the +slight enlargement that I mentioned. It +looks like a kind of knob, and it really +is a hard, hollow sack, or bag, containing +a fine yellow powder, which is called +pollen. Is that plain so far, dearie?”</p> +<p>“Pollen, yes, mamma! And do you +wish me to remember that name too?”</p> +<p>“Yes, it is very necessary that you +should do so. You will soon learn why. +Now look again at the green ovary. +That is also hollow, and contains seeds +or eggs, as I said before. In plants we +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_35' name='page_35'></a>35</span> +call them seeds and in animals eggs. +And it is these seeds that grow into the +baby plants. But they cannot grow +alone, without help. With a certain +kind of help they can and do grow, and +what do you suppose that help is?”</p> +<p>Elsie gazed earnestly at her mother, +trying to think it out. But she was +compelled to shake her head after all.</p> +<p>“I can’t imagine,” she said.</p> +<p>“Nothing but that some of the pollen +shall be mixed with them,” said her +mother.</p> +<p>“Oh, I see, I see!” Elsie cried delightedly. +“That is why the stamens with +the pollen in them are right over the +ovaries.”</p> +<p>“Yes, dear, you have guessed it. The +ripe pollen, falling into the ripe ovary, +would fertilize the seeds. And with +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_36' name='page_36'></a>36</span> +some plants, the earlier and simpler +kinds, this is just what happens. But +here you can see that the ovary is not +ripe. It is hard and green. When it is +ripe its color is yellow. But the pollen +is ripe now, you can see it all over the +anthers, as the knobs or sacks are called. +If the pollen should fall upon the ovary +now it would roll off without entering, +and would be wasted. Now what do +you suppose happens?”</p> +<p>“The—the—”</p> +<p>Elsie hesitated, looking with very bright +eyes at her mother, almost sure enough to +go on, but not quite. It seemed so +peculiar, the thought that had come to +her, and she did not see just how it could +be.</p> +<p>“You were going to say the bee, +weren’t you?” her mother smiled. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_37' name='page_37'></a>37</span></p> +<p>“Oh yes—and would that have been +right?” Elsie cried in delight.</p> +<p>“Yes, that would have been exactly +right. If we had been near enough to +examine the bee’s motions closely we +should have seen that he alighted on the +ovary, and then began to turn here and +there in order to get at the honey at +the base of each petal. As he did so he +brushed off some of the pollen, for he +was right in amongst the stamens, and +this powdery pollen stuck to his fuzzy +body and he carried it away with him.”</p> +<p>“But if he carried it away how could +it get into the flower’s ovary?” Elsie +asked, puzzled.</p> +<p>“It did not get into this flower’s +ovary,” her mother answered. “Nature +did not intend that it should, and that +is why the bee is introduced. For the +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_38' name='page_38'></a>38</span> +other buttercup that he flew to, or some +other one that he would visit afterward, +would have its ovary ripe, and when he +alighted on it in search of honey some of +the pollen would be brushed off his body +right into this ovary that was all ready +to receive it.”</p> +<p>“Oh! But what would happen then? +The little baby buttercups would begin +to grow right away, mamma?”</p> +<p>“Yes, the ovary would close up and the +seeds would begin to grow, very slowly. +They would keep on growing until they +were ripe and then they would burst +their covering and fall out on the ground. +Those of them that were fortunate +enough to become embedded in the soil, +so that they would not freeze in the +winter, would come out in the spring +as little plants, which would soon bring +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_39' name='page_39'></a>39</span> +forth buttercups. That is the way with +the wild flowers. But with the cultivated +ones, like cucumbers, apples, beans, +and the like, all of those that are valuable +for eating, we are careful to save the +seeds and plant them where they will be +safe. Instead of leaving them to chance +we make a garden and plant them in it +where they will be snug and warm.”</p> +<p>“And wouldn’t the seeds grow, or the +little plants come up, if the bee hadn’t +gone to the flowers, mamma?”</p> +<p>“No, darling, it is the bee, or some other +insect, or the birds, that marry all the +bright-colored plants in this way, as +the wind marries the soberhued ones. Without +these we should have no vegetation.”</p> +<p>“But, mamma, marry! Why +do you say they marry? I thought +only men and women married.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_40' name='page_40'></a>40</span></p> +<p>“The marriage that takes place between +men and women, dear, is only a +repetition of the marriage of plants. Its +object is the same—to reproduce the +race. Plants began to marry long, long +before men and women ever came on +earth and have been doing it ever +since, fortunately for us, because if +they should give up the practice we +should have to follow suit. The earth +would go back to the barren state in +which it was before life came to it.”</p> +<p>“It seems so strange,” said Elsie. +“Why, I never heard of anything so +funny! A bee, just a little bee, and +without him—”</p> +<p>“Funny is scarcely the word,” Mrs. +Edson smiled, “but it is certainly wonderful. +The pumpkin, the bean, the pear, +the squash, the orange, all the fruits +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_41' name='page_41'></a>41</span> +and vegetables that we eat, and which +the animals eat, must be fertilized in +order to reproduce their kind, and all +the fertilizing is done either by the wind, +which blows the pollen from one plant +to another, or by birds and insects. +But this is only a small part of the +secret I have to tell you, just the beginning. +There are many more wonderful +things to come than I have told you yet, +but I think this is enough for the first +time. You would better think over what +you have heard until tomorrow, when +I will tell you the next step, which is +about the animals. There are four things +in this lesson that you must remember:</p> +<p>“First, every male plant has at least +one stamen, which bears pollen.</p> +<p>“Second, every female plant has one +ovary which contains seeds. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_42' name='page_42'></a>42</span></p> +<p>“Third, the seeds in the ovary must +be fertilized by the pollen in the stamens +in order to be able to grow and bear +children.</p> +<p>“Fourth, flowers are fertilized by birds, +insects and the wind.</p> +<p>“Do you think you can remember +all that, darling?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, mamma, I’m sure I can!” +said Elsie. She thought a moment and +then added: “It was very nice of that +bumble-bee to mistake my nose for a +flower, I’m sure, for it was almost as if +he should say, ‘Doesn’t she look sweet—there +must be honey there!’ But I +guess he didn’t think I was very sweet +when I almost scared him to death, +poor fellow!”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_43' name='page_43'></a>43</span> +<a name='V_THE_FIRST_LIFE_ON_EARTH' id='V_THE_FIRST_LIFE_ON_EARTH'></a> +<h2>V</h2> +<h3>THE FIRST LIFE ON EARTH</h3> +</div> +<p>The next day Elsie was so eager for +the hour to come when she should +learn the secret of the animals that +she had been waiting in the hammock +quite a little while when her mother +came down stairs and as soon as she +appeared in sight Elsie clapped her +hands joyously, crying out:</p> +<p>“Now I shall hear how the animals +get their honey, sha’n’t I, mumsey? +But, mumsey, there isn’t anything like +the petals of a buttercup on an animal, +unless it’s his ears—do animals have their +honey there—where they join the body—like +the buttercups?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_44' name='page_44'></a>44</span></p> +<p>Mrs. Edson could not help laughing +at this funny notion.</p> +<p>“No, darling,” she answered, “animals +have no honey anywhere. In the plants +there is honey because they must have +something to attract the insects to them, +for they are rooted in the ground and +can’t move around to carry their pollen +to the other plants. And this pollen +must be carried, you remember, for that +is the way, and the only way, in which +little ones are made to be born. So +the flower has the honey in order to pay +the insect for marrying it. But animals +can move around. They can go to each +other and carry their own pollen, so +they do not need honey or anything +but themselves to attract each other. +In animals there is love instead of honey. +They love each other, in their way, and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_45' name='page_45'></a>45</span> +so come together and mingle their eggs +and pollen. Only it is not called pollen +in animals, as I said before. It is called +<i>zoösperms</i>, pronounced ‘zoo-o-sperms.’ +That is another name that you must not +forget, for it is to the animal what +pollen is to the plant. And in order that +little animals may be born it is quite as +necessary that the zoösperms cover or +fertilize the eggs, as, with the plants, it is +for the pollen to fertilize the seeds.”</p> +<p>“But, mamma,” said Elsie, wonderingly, +“you said, I think, that every +plant had an ovary—”</p> +<p>“No, darling, I said that every <i>female</i> +plant had an ovary.”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, female plant! That has +an ovary, and every male plant has a +stamen, and I think you said that they +must have, didn’t you?” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_46' name='page_46'></a>46</span></p> +<p>“Yes, dear, in order to reproduce +their kind they must have—why?”</p> +<p>“Well, then, does every male animal +have a stamen and every female an +ovary?”</p> +<p>“Certainly darling! And let me repeat +that the products of the two +must be mingled in order to bring +forth little animals. That is just what +I am going to tell you about today.”</p> +<p>“And do you mean, mamma, that +honey in the plants grows into love in +the animals?” Elsie asked, her eyes +very wide.</p> +<p>“Oh, that is a very beautiful thought +for my little girl to have!” Mrs. Edson +exclaimed, smoothing Elsie’s hair lovingly. +“And, yes, that is the truth, +put very poetically. Love is sweet, +like the honey that it replaces—at least +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_47' name='page_47'></a>47</span> +it is for us human beings. Probably +with the animals it is not of just the +same quality that it is with us, for they +do not act as if it were, but at least the +animals are an improvement on the +plants in this respect, and the love that +they feel for each other finally evolves, +in us, to become the sweet thing that +we find it to be.”</p> +<p>“Isn’t that lovely—and so strange!” +exclaimed Elsie.</p> +<p>“Yes, darling, it is lovely, and very +strange. There are various kinds of +love, as well as various degrees of the +same kind, but this is a subject a little +too deep for us to take up just yet. +What I wish now is to teach you how +the animals marry. And I will begin +by saying that all forms of reproduction, +which is the name given to having children, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_48' name='page_48'></a>48</span> +follow the same principle. The +animals marry in a way that is only a +variation of the plant way, and men +and women marry in a way that is a +variation of the plant and animal ways. +But let us begin right, with the first +appearance of life on earth.”</p> +<p>“Yes, mamma,” Elsie cried eagerly. +“But the <i>first</i> life! That must have +been very, very long ago, wasn’t it?”</p> +<p>“It was so far back in the history of +the world that we can scarcely more +than guess how long ago it must have +been. We do not even know where it +first appeared or just how it came to be. +Some scientists believe that it occurred +at the mouth of the Nile River, in Africa, +in the rich soil that the river deposits +there when it overflows its banks. +Others think it was in the sea, or along +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_49' name='page_49'></a>49</span> +the shores of some ocean in a tropical +country. But we need not go into that +here. What we do know is that the +hot sun, shining on a certain spot on +the earth or sea, which was just in the +right condition, produced the first body +containing life that the globe ever had, +and that this body was only a little +speck of jelly-like substance, which we +call protoplasm, pro-to-plas-m. The +word means ‘first growth’, for it was +the first thing that ever appeared that +was capable of growing. We also call +it a cell. Now there was only one cell +in the world. It had no companions. +And what do you suppose happened?”</p> +<p>“It must have been very lonesome,” +suggested Elsie, sympathetically.</p> +<p>“Yes, it must have been—certainly +it must if it could feel or think. But, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_50' name='page_50'></a>50</span> +at all events, whether or not it did feel +lonely, it began right away to make +companions. Of course you can’t think +how it did that, can you, dear?”</p> +<p>“I—I am afraid not,” Elsie hesitated.</p> +<p>“Yet it was the very simplest way +imaginable. It merely divided itself into +two parts, each of which was just like +the other.”</p> +<p>“Oh!” exclaimed Elsie. “But, then, +mamma, who could tell which was the +father or mother, and which was the +child? Or were they just brother and +sister, or two brothers?”</p> +<p>“There was not then what we now +call ‘sex’, for that was only the beginning +of families, so to say, and it was very +crude, as all things are when they are +first started. But perhaps we might +call one cell the mother of the other, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_51' name='page_51'></a>51</span> +since it is always the female, and not the +male, that brings forth children, though +nobody could tell which was the mother +and which was the child.”</p> +<p>“Well,” said Elsie, “<i>that</i> is the strangest +thing yet!”</p> +<p>“It seems so to us, because it is so +different from our way of reproducing, +but it was the natural way, and the +same process is going on to this day. +Even little girls are born in a manner +which, though it appears very different, +is the same in principle, as we shall see.”</p> +<p>“But, mamma, I thought that all living +beings were obliged to have a stamen +or an ovary!”</p> +<p>“So they are obliged, dear! This cell +grew until it was too large and heavy +to be supported by its structure, or +lack of structure, and then it fell apart. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_52' name='page_52'></a>52</span> +Force, or growth, was the stamen here, +and the cell itself was the ovary.”</p> +<p>“Oh, then force or growth was the first +stamen, mamma?”</p> +<p>“No, darling, it was not, unless we +should call growth the stamen of today—which +we might do, in a way. But the +first stamen was, in form, a ray of the +sun, and the first ovary was the earth, +soil. For don’t you recall that this cell, +which was the first life-form, was produced +by the sun shining on the earth +or sea?”</p> +<p>Elsie pondered on this a moment. +Then her face brightened.</p> +<p>“Oh, now I see!” she exclaimed. +“And what a beautiful set of changes, +like real poetry! The stamen in a flower, +and growth, and a ray of sunlight are +all one at bottom!” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_53' name='page_53'></a>53</span></p> +<p>“Yes, darling, it is beautiful poetry, +when one comes thoroughly to understand +it. And when we find that love +is the source of all these different forms +and processes it becomes more beautiful +than ever. Now let us go on a little +further and you will see how that is.”</p> +<p>“Please hurry, mamma!” said Elsie. +“I wish to find out where I came from, +and you are going to tell me that, aren’t +you?”</p> +<p>“Certainly, darling! That is what I +have been leading up to all this time. +Now we will speak of a number of higher +growths than the single cells are, for +there are several things yet to be made +plain before you will be able to understand +the highest growth of all, which +is that of a human being like yourself.”</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_54' name='page_54'></a>54</span> +<a name='VI_WHERE_BABY_ANIMALS_COME_FROM' id='VI_WHERE_BABY_ANIMALS_COME_FROM'></a> +<h2>VI</h2> +<h3>WHERE BABY ANIMALS COME FROM</h3> +</div> +<p>At that moment there sounded a +hoarse noise near by, which was +followed by a splash, as if some body +had tumbled into the pond. Elsie looked +at her mother roguishly and said:</p> +<p>“Old Croaky!”</p> +<p>Old Croaky was a granddaddy bullfrog +with whom they were very well +acquainted, for he sang for them every +evening.</p> +<p>“I am glad that he spoke just as he did,” +Mrs. Edson smiled, “for he reminds me +that frogs are as good an example as I +can take next. He belongs to one of +the lower classes of animals, not so +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_55' name='page_55'></a>55</span> +very much higher than the plants. Now, +in the plants, you will remember, it was +necessary for the pollen to enter the +ovary in order to reach and fertilize the +seeds. But with the frog it is not so. +The female lays the eggs first, and just +as she is doing so the male places himself +in such a position towards her that he +can mingle his zoösperms with her eggs +as they come out. That fertilizes them +and they immediately begin to grow. +First they become tadpoles, and then +little frogs.”</p> +<p>“What, was Old Croaky ever a little +tadpole, mumsey?”</p> +<p>“Yes, darling, he was. Every frog +was once. And before that he was an +egg, one of many, in his mother’s ovary, +and it is so with all animals. They all +of them have eggs and zoösperms, just +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_56' name='page_56'></a>56</span> +as the plants have pollen and seeds. +Only, with most of the animals, the +zoösperms must enter the ovary in order +to fertilize the eggs, as is the way of the +plants. And it is the same with the +birds. They are higher, that is later, +in the scale of life than the frogs are. +Now the higher the creature the more +complicated becomes the process of reproduction, +even though the principle +is always the same. It is always growth, +always the life within, forcing itself +out to take form, and it is only the forms +that change. The life and force within +are the same that the first single cell +had.”</p> +<p>“It is very wonderful, mamma,” Elsie +said, awed by the mystery, even though +she was very far from grasping the +whole of it. “And the birds, mamma, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_57' name='page_57'></a>57</span> +have they stamens, and eggs inside? +I thought their eggs were outside, in +a little nest. And some of them are, +mumsey, because, you know, I have +seen them lots of times.”</p> +<p>“Yes, the eggs come out where you +can see them, in time, as the frog’s do, +but at first they are inside the mother +bird, as they are with the frogs and all +animals. Only, it is not with the birds +as it is with the frogs, for the bird’s +eggs must be fertilized by the male +zoösperms while they are still within the +mother bird. The zoösperms must enter +the ovary as the pollen must enter the +ovary of the plant. So the male bird, +like most male animals, has a stamen +which is a repetition of that of the flower, +made of such a shape that it can reach +the eggs in the mother bird’s ovary and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_58' name='page_58'></a>58</span> +fertilize them there. Then they come +out, they are ‘laid’ as we say, and we see +them in the nest which the mother +and father birds have prepared for them. +And just as the seeds need to be covered +and kept warm, when they have fallen +from the ripe pods to the ground, in +order that they may live and grow into +baby plants, so the bird’s eggs must be +covered and kept warm and safe in order +that they may grow into birdies. It is +just here that you may see where the +honey of the plants begins to become +love in the higher species. For instead +of leaving the eggs to be protected or +not, according to chance, as is the way +of the plants, the mother bird covers +and warms and protects them herself. +She sits on the nest and keeps them safe +with her own body and feathers. Isn’t +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_59' name='page_59'></a>59</span> +that lovely! And the father bird goes +to market in the woods and fields and +brings her the daintiest and best food he +can find.”</p> +<p>“Isn’t he <i>nice!</i>” said Elsie appreciatively.</p> +<p>“Yes, he is nice, and so is his wife, +the mother bird. Just think! A bird +is the most energetic and tireless creature +in all animated nature. It is always +on the move, urged by the force and +overflowing life within its body, and to +sit there quietly all alone on the eggs +day after day and night after night—oh, +it must be hard, so hard that we can +scarcely realize the extent of the sacrifice +she is making for her little children. +That is what love is like. And the higher +a creature is in the scale of life the more +love it has, until, in men and women, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_60' name='page_60'></a>60</span> +the acme is reached and they not only +give up their comfort for each other, +and especially for their children, but +even their lives themselves. With human +beings one can tell how high a given one +is in the scale of humanity by the +amount of love he has. Some persons +have very little, and they are nearer +the animal plane: some have a great +deal, and the more they have, the less +selfish they are, the higher they have +risen. For love is the real stamen that +fertilizes the world and makes it grow, +and the more one has of it the more +life one gives to the universe.”</p> +<p>Elsie felt very grave for some moments, +thinking out this deep matter. It was +too complex for her to realize wholly, +but she caught glimpses of the immortal +beauty of the ideas and she was awed +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_61' name='page_61'></a>61</span> +by it. Suddenly she threw her arms +around her mother’s neck and kissed +her passionately. It had occurred to +her all at once how much her mother +loved her and how much she must have +sacrificed for her sake during all the +years of her little life, and though she +had no conception of the full extent of +the sacrifice she saw enough to make +her feel like crying for very love of that +dear and sweet mamma. Her mother +understood her and taking her in her +arms hugged her closely, sitting in silence +with her for a long time, both of them +too full of love for each other to speak. +And so the lesson for the day ended.</p> +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_62' name='page_62'></a>62</span> +<a name='VII_WHERE_BABY_GIRLS_COME_FROM' id='VII_WHERE_BABY_GIRLS_COME_FROM'></a> +<h2>VII</h2> +<h3>WHERE BABY GIRLS COME FROM</h3> +</div> +<p>“Now, mumsey,” cried Elsie the +next day, running to her mother +at the hour set aside for their baby-talks, +“I know what comes next—it’s I, +isn’t it?”</p> +<p>“Yes, darling, it’s you. And it’s I, +too. Isn’t that a beautiful thought, +that you and I held the same relation +to each other that the mother bird holds +to the egg from which the birdies come! +For once you were a tiny, tiny egg inside +mamma just as it was with the +birds.”</p> +<p>“Oh-h!” gasped Elsie, gazing at her +mother in bewilderment. She could not +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_63' name='page_63'></a>63</span> +realize such an astounding thing at +once.</p> +<p>“Yes, darling,” Mrs. Edson went on, +“every female human being has an ovary, +just as every female flower has, and just +as every female bird has; and, also like +them, she has seeds or eggs in this +ovary. And she has a great many of +them. They have been growing within +her ever since she was a baby, and when +she is about twelve years old they begin +to ripen, one at a time, and pass from +the ovary into a nest that is all ready for +them inside the female body. This nest +we call the womb. At first, while she +is so young, the womb is not strong +enough to hold the egg while it grows, +so the egg soon leaves its nest to come +into the world and be lost, as so very +many seeds of the plant are. As it +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_64' name='page_64'></a>64</span> +does so it acts in such a way on the young +girl that, when she first becomes aware +that something which seems strange is +happening to her, she is frightened and +does not know what to do. And as +you, darling, are now at the age when +this must come to you very soon, I am +going to prepare you for it, so that you +may know that it is natural, coming to +all girls of about your age, and that +there is nothing to be alarmed over. +All the talks that we have had were +intended as a kind of introduction to +this event and its consequences, for it +is the greatest that enters a girl’s life +before she has grown fully to be a woman. +And you were once one of these tiny eggs. +More than that, you now have within +your body, a great number of that very +kind of eggs from which you sprang.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_65' name='page_65'></a>65</span></p> +<p>Elsie sat with her eyes in breathless +interest on her mother, so filled with +wonder and speculation that she could +not ask a single question. Mrs. Edson +proceeded:</p> +<p>“I must repeat dear, because it is so +very important for you to remember, +that every woman has an ovary which +contains many seeds or eggs, just as the +female flower has. These eggs, if left +unfertilized, will pass from the body +and never grow any more. But each +one, if fertilized by the papa, as the bird’s +eggs were, and as the flower seeds were, +will stay in a little nook inside the +mother’s body, where it will grow and +grow until the time comes for it to burst +forth into the world, following the same +principle that the first cell followed in +reproducing, and which all living things +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_66' name='page_66'></a>66</span> +follow always. The life within forces +it away from the parent, to become a +separate growth. Then it will come +forth, and behold, the tiny seed or egg +has grown to be a baby girl or boy, +weighing several pounds!”</p> +<p>“Oh-h!” Elsie gasped again. “And +that is how—how—I—came to be born, +mamma!”</p> +<p>“Yes, darlingest, it is the way in which +every living person was born. There +is not, and there cannot be, any other +way. Each child is a part both of its +father and mother. The egg in the +mother would never grow into a baby +unless it had first been fertilized by the +father, who does so through his great +love for the mamma, just as with the +birds and animals, though his love is of a +higher kind than that of the lower orders.” +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_67' name='page_67'></a>67</span></p> +<p>“And does the mother-woman warm +the eggs as the bird in the nest does, +mamma, while the papa-man brings her +nice things to eat?”</p> +<p>“Yes, dearie, only the mother-woman +has the nest inside her body, as I have +said, and she keeps the little one safe +and warm there much longer than the +bird sits on her nest. And think of all +the years after the baby is born that she +waits on and cares for it! There is no +other love that equals in devotion that +of the mother.”</p> +<p>Elsie, without a word, her eyes swimming +in tears, kissed her mother affectionately. +She had realized a little more +of what she owed to her.</p> +<p>“Now,” said Mrs. Edson, “I must tell +you how to care for this nest in which, +by and by, when you have grown up +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_68' name='page_68'></a>68</span> +and have a husband and are strong +enough, you will be keeping a little +baby of your own. Because many girls +who become married do not know these +things there is a dreadful amount of +sickness and misery in the world, all +needless. And it does seem too bad—when +merely a few words at the right +time would have saved it all!”</p> +<p>Of course Elsie was not old enough to +understand how this could be, so she +said nothing, but sat looking earnestly +at her mother as she went on:</p> +<p>“In the first place, dear, you must +know that the little baby’s nest, which +we call the womb, is placed in the lower +portion of the woman’s body, just above +the ‘private parts’. Perhaps it is put +there because it is the safest place for it +in the whole body—for the eggs and +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_69' name='page_69'></a>69</span> +womb are very delicate, and must not +be exposed to any danger of injury. +So it grows in the interior of the trunk, +where outside dangers would be less +likely to reach and spoil it, so that the +woman would be sick all her life and +never have any children. Many hopeless +female complaints, ending with premature +and painful death, are caused +by lack of proper care of the womb +and its entrance. That care consists +chiefly in preventing the womb from +being touched by anything, and keeping +the entrance clean. It is very simple—just +keep the entrance clean and the +womb untouched by anything. An observance +of such slight rules as these +would have saved many and many a +poor soul from a life of continual misery +and suffering. +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_70' name='page_70'></a>70</span></p> +<p>“I have told you, dear, long ago how +to keep the entrance clean. And now +that you will soon begin to menstruate, +as the passing out of the eggs is called, +I shall have but little to add to what you +already know, but I will repeat it from +the beginning in order that you may +have it all clear in your mind.</p> +<p>“First, bathe the entrance every time +you bathe the rest of your body, and at +such other times as you may feel the +need of doing so. Never neglect this. +It may have evil consequences. Just +keep it clean, and never touch it for any +other purpose. And be careful to use +only your own towels, for disease is +easily communicated to these parts by +cloths that are not clean, and you never +can be too careful in this respect. It is +plain enough, and easy enough to do, +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_71' name='page_71'></a>71</span> +isn’t it darling—and you will always +remember about it, won’t you?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, mamma, that is easy +enough!” Elsie said quickly. “I could remember +a lot more than that, I’m sure.”</p> +<p>“It would have been so infinitely +much better for so many poor sick +creatures if they had known and remembered +even that!” Mrs. Edson sighed, +holding her little daughter closely, as +if she would protect her from not only +that harm but all others. “But,” she +continued, “I must now tell you what you +may be expecting to come to you before +long, when it will be harder to keep the +entrance clean than it has been so far, +and when to keep it clean will be more +necessary than ever.</p> +<p>“Every twenty-eight days, dearie, beginning +with you very soon now, there +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_72' name='page_72'></a>72</span> +will be a flow of blood into the little +baby’s nest, the womb, and this will +come out of your body through this +entrance to the womb. As soon as you +see any signs of it on your body or +clothing you must come right and tell +me, as you would if you had cut your +finger or stubbed your toe on a stone. It +is something to be very proud of for it +shows the possibility of motherhood, +and it must be given the very best care, +which is, as I have said, chiefly to keep +the parts clean. By and by when you +are grown old enough and strong enough, +and have a husband, who will fertilize +the eggs, one of them will grow into a +little baby, but it will be a long time +yet before that can be, and until then you +will have this flow every twenty-eight +days, for the sake of your health. This +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_73' name='page_73'></a>73</span> +brings more work for the womb to do, +while the menses, as they are called, +continue, and therefore you may feel +out of sorts both mentally and bodily +for two or three days. But this will +pass away when the flow ceases, and if +proper care is taken of the womb and +passages you will never feel anything +worse than this. Some women feel great +pain at this time, but almost always the +reason is that some of their internal parts +have been injured in one way or another. +Sometimes lack of proper food, sufficient +fresh air and sun, or not enough exercise +and clean water are responsible for a +portion of the pain. In order to have +strong reproductive organs a woman +should be healthy in all bodily ways, +and anything that she can do to improve +her general health will be favorable to +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_74' name='page_74'></a>74</span> +her at the time of the menses as well as +at all times. Do you think you understand +all this, darling, and can remember +it?”</p> +<p>“I don’t know, mamma,” said Elsie +hesitatingly. “There is a lot to it, but +I’ll try.”</p> +<p>“That is my dear little girl! To try +is the next thing to doing. Only remember +that when you don’t know what to +do, and have tried, come to mamma. +That is one great reason why mammas +are—to help little girls who have +tried.”</p> +<p>Elsie kissed her mother warmly, and +then sat looking dreamily out towards +the woods. She had learned many +strange things and was thinking them +over. Suddenly she spoke, as if unconsciously, +saying: +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_75' name='page_75'></a>75</span> +“Who would ever have thought that +so much could come out of it!”</p> +<p>“Out of what?” her mother asked.</p> +<p>“Why, out of a bee trying to step on +my nose!” said Elsie.</p> +<p style='margin-left:0.0em; margin-right:0.0em; text-align:center'>(The End.)<br /></p> + +<!-- generated by ppg.rb version: ppg0513a --> +<!-- timestamp: Wed May 13 22:04:00 -0600 2009 --> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Every Girl's Book, by George F. 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Butler + +Release Date: May 14, 2009 [EBook #28812] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EVERY GIRL'S BOOK *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +EVERY GIRL'S BOOK + + + + +EVERY GIRL'S BOOK + +BY + +GEORGE F. BUTLER, M. D. + +1912 + +THE ABBOTT PRESS + +RAVENSWOOD + +CHICAGO + + + + +Copyright 1912 + +THE ABBOTT PRESS + +CHICAGO + + + + +PUBLISHER'S NOTES + +This is the second of a series of books on "How to Live," by Dr. +George F. Butler. These books range from childhood to old age. The boy +and the girl, the young man and young woman, the young husband and +young wife, middle-aged people, and old people are instructed in these +books in matters of the utmost importance to their health and +happiness. The first in this series was "Every Boy's Book." These two +books are especially intended for boys and girls from ten to fourteen +years of age, but every father and mother should read them, so they, +too, can know the truth about these great sex facts, and be prepared +to answer children's questions--now sometimes troublesome. + + + + +CONTENTS + + Chapter Page + I. How the Story Began 1 + II. What the Bee Wanted of Elsie's Nose 10 + III. The Husbands and Wives of Plants 21 + IV. The Papa and Mamma Parts of the Plants 34 + V. The First Life on Earth 43 + VI. Where Baby Animals Come From 54 + VII. Where Baby Girls Come From 62 + + + + +PREFACE + +The greatest duty of mankind lies in the proper uprearing of our +children. The fact is recognized, but is the duty fulfilled? +Do we rear our children as we should? There is but one answer: +We fail. Teaching them many things for their good, we yet keep +from them ignorantly, foolishly, with a hesitancy and neglect +unpardonable--knowledge, the possession of which is essential for +their future welfare. + +The first necessity for well-being is a healthy mind in a healthy +body. We can give our children that, if we will, by teaching them all +about the body, its source of life, its different functions, and its +care. The child should grow to maturity knowing that the human body +is something fine, something that accomplishes good, something to be +proud of in every way. Above all should the child be taught all +concerning the process of reproduction, just as it is taught the +action of the stomach or of the brain. By so doing, we can produce a +better and healthier and happier generation to follow ours. By what +strange and mistaken impulse in the past such absolutely required +teaching has been so studiously withheld is beyond all comprehension. + +We want the best for our children. We want them to grow up with right +thoughts and habits, yet we keep from them the knowledge without which +their thoughts and habits will surely be imperiled when there arises +in them the generative instinct, which has its effect upon both male +and female youth alike. + +We give them no information as to sexual matters; and, when it comes +to them, it is too often but in the way of half-truths, mysterious, +exciting to the imagination, and dangerous. + +Yet how simple and natural the giving of this information might be +made; and how easily the child might be safeguarded! Mankind has +demands which must be gratified. We have hunger; we have thirst; we +have the impulse of reproduction. Each is right and natural. There +should be no difference in the consideration of either of these wants. +All about them the child should be taught, from the beginning, so that +all will be natural and right and commonplace and a matter of course +long before the age is reached when the sexual instinct is developed. + +Is not this reason? Is it not healthful, logical, common sense? Is it +not the wholesome and right and proper view? + +Nature is devoted to reproduction. From the cell to the flower, and so +on upward, the creatures of the world are but renewing themselves, and +the learning of this is the greatest and most beautiful of all +studies. All this the child can be taught. + +Elementary biology, or the study of subjects of what we call zoology +and botany combined, can be made the most attractive of studies to any +child who has learned to read. The boy or girl may be taught that the +trees and flowers are living things that are beautiful and are male +and female. The child may be shown how the bees carry the pollen from +flower to flower, and how other plants and flowers are produced in +that way. + +He can be taught the wonder of seed, and its consequences. He can be +shown the birds in their mating, and the marvel of the egg, and why it +can produce a chicken. And thus the child, boy or girl, may be led on, +through the gradations, to a study of the human body, and how +reproduction is provided for there as in the bodies of all other +living things, vegetable or animal. + +Before the child, boy or girl, has reached the age of ten, long before +the sex instinct has been aroused, the sexual lesson will have been +learned innocently and thoroughly and, when the change comes, it will +be as no bewildering, exciting thing, but something anticipated, and +received with a sense of understanding and responsibility. + +This knowledge almost unknowingly acquired as a child, will mean +health of mind and of body, and the avoidance of what may result most +evilly. + +How is sexual instruction given now? In tens of thousands of +instances--no doubt in the majority--not at all. Lectures to youth of +either sex are given sometimes, but only when they have reached what +is called "the age of understanding." + +Here is where parents err, and seriously. The teaching has been +deferred too long. The young of either sex, long before puberty, have +acquired some knowledge of the mystery--which should have been no +mystery at all--and late teaching, however sound and wise, but gives +an added and inviting direction to the subject suddenly made to assume +a new and startling importance. It arouses curiosity, and more. It may +sometimes be harmful. + +As for the youth never taught at all, those who acquire their +knowledge only through accidental sources--usually incapable, and too +often vicious--their case could not be worse. They are unprepared for +one of the tests and demands for life. Their parents are guilty. + +There is nothing impure in nature. To guard the children, to prepare +them for every phase of life, is the parents' duty. The child is pure, +and to the child all things are pure. Teach the child, simply as a +matter of course, all about the ways of reproduction, and to the boy +or girl purity will remain when the age of sexual sway and impulse +comes. This is the only law in the case. Let it be followed, and the +generation to follow will be clearer, wiser, and healthier than is the +present one. + +It is my hope that this "Every Girl's Book" (with "Every Boy's Book" +which preceded it) will afford the means so long needed and desired +for teaching children what they should be taught. I have tried to tell +the story of sex naturally, in a clear and simple way, from the +development of life, and of life's relations, from protoplasm all +through organic life up to mankind. Its teachings should result in +wide promotion of the innocence of knowledge which is better, +infinitely, than the imperiling innocence of ignorance. + + George F. Butler, M. D. + + Chicago, Ill. + July 1, 1912. + + + + +I + +HOW THE STORY BEGAN + + +Her name was Elsie and she was asleep in a cozy nook in the woods, +which was the beginning of it all. + +Many strange things may happen to a little girl who falls asleep in +the woods, but there never happened to any other little girl, either +asleep or awake, in the woods or at home, a more important thing than +that which had its start for Elsie while she lay there under the green +boughs beside a bubbling spring of crystal-clear water, the scent of +pines and flowers sweetening the still air. A robin redbreast whistled +melodiously for "rain, rain, rain," and the cows in the pasture, who +do not like rain as well as they do sunshine, lifted up their voices +in protest, calling "oo-oo-ohh! moo-oo-hh! noo-oo-hh!" as if they were +trying to say "no, no, no!" and could not speak the English language +well. It was a peaceful woodland scene, a scene into which, if you +were awake, you would expect that a railroad train would be about the +last thing that could possibly enter. + +But Elsie was asleep, and in her dreams she was sure she saw a great +locomotive engine charging down upon her with frightful speed. As soon +as she saw it she tried to cry out, but could not do so. Somehow she +could not send a single sound from her lips. Then she tried to jump +out of the way, but was unable to do that either. She could not even +move in the slightest degree. So, full of terror, she thought she +stood there, helplessly, while the engine rushed nearer and nearer, +puffing forth vast clouds of black smoke, and roaring and hissing and +clanking. Again she tried to scream, and could not: again she tried to +run aside, but could not move. She seemed so small, so tiny and weak, +beside that monster! And she wondered how it could possibly bear to +hurt her, a big, powerful thing like that--it was not fair! But--bang! +The cowcatcher caught her up-- + +And she awoke to see a fuzzy bumble-bee just alighting on her nose! + +Though Elsie did not, as a general thing, care much for bumble-bees, +and would rather have their room than their company, she was so highly +relieved to find that the gigantic engine was _only_ a bumble-bee that +she said, "Oh!" with such violence of surprise and gladness that the +bee, doubtless as much afraid of her as she had been of the +dream-engine, shot out of sight in an instant and she never saw him +afterward, that she knew of. + +She sat a moment staring after him, trying to collect herself, for she +was confused with her sudden awakening, and then she jumped up +laughing. + +"What a funny bumble-bee!" she exclaimed. "_I_ wouldn't have hurt +him!" Then in conscious dignity, proud to think that she was now big +enough for something to be afraid of, she took up the pail of water +that she had come to get from the spring and hurried homeward. + +Now if this were all the story it would not amount to much, and it +never would have got itself told in these pages. And, if Elsie had +been like some girls, who are not chums with their mothers, the story +would never have been told here either, because she would not have +repeated the adventure to her mamma, in which case her mamma would not +have taken the story up where the daughter left it, and shown its +importance. But Elsie and her mother were like two sisters, a big and +a little one, and there were not many things that happened to the one +that the other did not hear of very soon. So away went Elsie singing +and laughing and swinging her pail of water, her bright hair blowing +in wisps around her sweet face with its red lips and cheeks and white +teeth, the prettiest, loveliest picture in the whole lovely landscape +of foliage and flowers and pastures and meadows. + +Nobody in the world ever yet found a prettier picture anywhere than a +fresh and clean girl is, as everybody will admit if asked, and Elsie +was fresh and clean even if she had just been rudely aroused from +sleep. She bathed her whole body twice every day, washed her face and +hands often, brushed her teeth always after eating, smiled a great +deal, and got plenty of fresh air and sunshine, and this was enough to +make any girl fresh and clean and pretty, or almost enough. + +Of course a girl must eat sufficient food, and must brush her hair and +take care of her nails, and all those little things--everybody knows +that. But the main things, beside food, the things, too, that some +little girls fail in, are air, sunshine, water and smiles. Elsie had +all these and therefore she looked clean and fresh and pretty. + +She had on a dress too, naturally, but I don't know just what kind of +a one it was, for that is a small matter compared with the body +itself. I think it was some kind of a calico, made for vacation +frolicing, for Elsie was a city girl staying in the country for the +summer, and almost anything was good enough for that. + +So Elsie, fresh and clean, dancing and singing up the lane, swinging +her pail of crystal water, the loveliest sight in the whole lovely +landscape, came in view of the house where they were staying. And no +sooner had she caught a glimpse of her mother on the porch than, eager +to tell her funny experience, she ran forward in pleasant excitement, +crying out: + +"Oh, mamma! Such a queer thing--Oh, Oh, it was an engine, the biggest, +biggest you ever saw--and--and it stepped on my nose--I mean it was +only a bumble-bee and--it--it almost ran right over me--" + +"Isn't my little girl somewhat mixed in her speech!" smiled her mother +as Elsie paused for breath. + +"I--I guess I--I am!" Elsie faltered. "But then, I'm so excited!" + +"Yes, you are excited," smiled her mother, putting her arm around her +shoulders and walking with her to the kitchen. "And when you are calm +you may tell me all about it." + +So Elsie carried the pail of water to the sink and set it on its +shelf. And when she had worked off her surplus energy in this way she +felt sober enough to tell her story clearly, and she did so, snuggled +in her mother's arms in the hammock on the porch. She finished by +saying: + +"Wasn't that a funny thing, mamma, that I should dream that the +bumble-bee was an engine just going to run over me!" + +Then the really important part of the story began. Her mother +answered: + + + + +II + +WHAT THE BEE WANTED OF ELSIE'S NOSE + + +"Yes, it may seem funny, but it is natural. When you were asleep you +heard the bee buzzing and rumbling, and the sound reminded you of an +engine, so you began to picture an engine in your mind, and with the +queer mixture of fact and fancy that are common to dreams you thought +it was coming right at you. And it was only a bumble-bee taking a look +at your little red-and-white nose." + +Elsie clapped her hands and laughed. Then she asked: + +"What did the bee want to see my nose for, mamma?" + +"He thought, perhaps, that it was some new kind of a bud, and he +wished to examine it," Mrs. Edson smiled. "A little girl's face is +very much like a pretty flower. Your hair was tumbled all about your +head, I suppose, and your little rosebud of a nose, peeking through, +attracted the bee." + +At this idea Elsie laughed again, joyously. + +"But, mamma," she asked, "why should the bee wish to see my nose, even +if he did think it might be a flower? Do bees eat flowers, mamma?" + +Elsie's mother threw her a sudden look that was almost a startled one. +Then she hugged her close and kissed her. + +"What a great big little girl you are getting to be, darling!" she +said, gazing fondly at her. This did not seem to Elsie much like an +answer to her question, and she fixed her eyes brightly on her +mother's face as if waiting for her to go on with her words. But her +mother only said: "I scarcely realized that you were no longer my +little baby-girl, and that you were instead almost a young lady, old +enough to understand many new things, among them the reason why a bee +goes to flowers." + +She paused again, looking at her big little girl wistfully. She was +thinking: "Elsie has begun to be a woman now, and I shall soon, all +too soon, lose my baby-girl, for she will grow up and marry and go +away to a home of her own and have a little girl like herself, just as +I have had her!" + +This made her feel sad, but she said nothing to Elsie of this feeling, +for she would not be able to understand it and it would only make her +feel sad too. By and by she would tell her what it meant to have a +husband and children and home of her own, after her parents were +passed away, and she must begin to prepare her for this knowledge now. +So, finally, she said: + +"No, darling, bees do not eat flowers, though they eat a part of them, +or a product of them. The most important thing that they visit flowers +for, as far as the world is concerned, is to fertilize them." + +"Fer-fer-ilize!" stammered Elsie. "What is that, mamma?" + +"Not ferferilize, darling, but fertilize, fer-til-ize, which means to +make rich, or fruitful. As strange as it may seem the bees and other +insects are of vast importance to men--sh-h!" + +She suddenly held up her hand, motioning for silence, and Elsie, +wondering what was coming, followed her mother's pointing finger with +her eyes. What she saw was a bee hovering over a bright yellow +buttercup that grew almost within reach of where she sat. + +"Watch him!" whispered her mother. + +Elsie did so, holding her breath for fear of scaring him away. He +alighted on the flower, crawled clumsily over it for a second or two, +pausing now and then to bury his head in the blossom, but he did not +do anything else, that Elsie could see, except to tumble about very +awkwardly and funnily and then fly away to another buttercup and +repeat the operation. Elsie drew a long breath and looked at her +mother inquiringly. + +"It did not seem as if he did much, did it, dearie!" she said in +answer to the look. "But in reality he did a great deal, for he--what +shall I say--married? Yes, married! The bee actually married those two +buttercups together, so that next season, when these two flowers, the +papa and mamma, are dead and gone, there will spring up and grow other +buttercups, baby-plants, the children of these two. If it were not for +the bee, or other insects, we should have no bright flowers in the +world." + +"Oh!" Elsie's eyes opened wide. She thought a moment, then, "Could he +marry my nose to anything?" she burst forth. But seeing the absurdity +of the notion before the words were fairly out of her mouth she joined +in her mother's laughter over it. + +"No, dearie, of course not. It is only flowers that bees marry +together. And not the least strange thing about it is that they do not +know they are doing so." + +"Don't know what they are doing!" exclaimed Elsie. + +"Oh, yes, they know what they are doing for themselves, but they can't +have the least notion of what they are doing for the flowers and +indeed for the whole world! Without plants there could be no life of +any kind on earth. It is the plants that produce life. Through them +come animals, and even men and women and little girls. The plants feed +on the earth and air, which men and animals cannot do. A man or a lamb +cannot eat the soil or live on air, but a plant lives by eating the +minerals and gases and water of the earth and air, and the man and +the lamb eat the plants, and so are able to live. Without the plants +we could not exist, and without the insects, which fertilize the +plants, so that they can grow, the plants themselves would soon die. +Don't you think now that what the bee did was quite an important +matter, even if it did seem so trivial?" + +"Ye-yes," Elsie hesitated. She did not yet grasp the full depth of her +mother's words. They meant so much! "But," she continued, her bright +eyes eagerly turned on her mother's face, "we don't eat the buttercup, +mamma, do we?" + +"No, sweetie, but we do eat very gladly a part of it, and that is the +part that the bee visited the flower for, and which he took away as +his fee for marrying the two. Can you guess what it is?" + +The idea of a bee performing a marriage between flowers and taking a +fee for it was a little too much for Elsie, and when it was added that +she and her mother ate this fee such a look of amazement came into her +sweet face that her mother could not help smiling broadly. + +"It is the honey, little girlie," she said. "The bee takes the honey +from the flower and carries it home to the hive, where he stores it up +until he has a great mass of it, and then the bee-man gets it and +sells it to the grocer, who sells it to us." + +"W-e-l-l!" said Elsie slowly, "if that isn't strange!" She sat a +moment thinking of this miracle, her mother watching her lovingly and +considering what she ought to say next, for she had a great secret to +tell her little daughter, a secret so great and important that much +wise thought was required to study out just how to make it plain to a +girl as young as Elsie. Besides, she was interested to know what Elsie +herself would say next, for she was bringing her up to think +logically, so that she might know always how to ask the right question +at the right time, instead of the wrong one. And she was very much +pleased when Elsie, instead of putting the last question first, as +some little girls would have done, put the right one first by saying: + +"But, mamma, how _can_ flowers marry! And how can a bee possibly marry +them?" + +This was the right question to ask first, even if it was a kind of +double-headed one, because this marriage was the first of the wonders +that had amazed her, and the answer to it would lead logically to the +fee and the honey eaten by people, and these questions would be easier +to make plain after the first one was answered. + + + + +III + +THE HUSBANDS AND WIVES OF PLANTS + + +Mrs. Edson drew a long breath because she knew the time had arrived +when, for her little daughter's sake, she must give her the +information which would mark her growth from girlhood into young +womanhood, and the fact disturbed her, for she did not want to lose +her little girl, even in exchange for the lovely young lady whom she +knew would take that dear little girl's place. But it must be done, +and, thankful that she had studied the subject enough to know how to +do it in a nice and plain way, she began: + +"In the first place, dear," she said, "you must know that the flowers +are the husbands and wives of plants, made so by nature. They are in +their way as truly married as Mr. and Mrs. Jones are in their way, or +as your papa and I are. This marriage is a law of nature, invented to +carry on the race, whatever that race may be, whether it is that of +mankind, or plants, or animals, or birds, or even fishes. For not only +do men and flowers marry, everything in nature does the same--turtles, +frogs, robins, elephants, everything!" + +Elsie wished very much at this point to ask if her mother had ever +seen an elephant's wife, thinking that she must look rather funny, +much different, to say the least, from a flower's wife, but as the +answer came to her at once, without asking the question, she said +nothing. Of course an elephant's wife must be another elephant, as the +flower's wife was another flower. But it was all very singular, and +the sparkle of her eyes as she looked into her mother's face showed +her interest in what might be coming. Mrs. Edson went on: + +"We will begin with plants, because they came first into the world as +living beings, and all other living beings not only had their origin +in plants but live by aid of them to this day. From the plants grew +animals, and from animals grew men and women and little girls. It took +a long, long time for all this to come about, so long that the human +mind fails to grasp or comprehend it; and at first, when one hears of +it for the first time, it seems wholly impossible and unbelievable. +But science has proved it to be true, and even shows the exact way in +which the various changes were made. Many, if not all, the steps by +which we mounted from the condition of a tiny speck of jelly-plant, a +speck no bigger than the point of a pin, to become human beings are +still in existence and are frequently observed by scientists. With a +microscope anybody may see them. So we know that the theory of +evolution, as it is called, is a true one. It is also an exceedingly +wonderful and beautiful truth, full of secrets and surprises of the +most interesting and delightful kind, as I shall show. Now let's go +and examine the buttercup that the bee just married to the second +buttercup." + +Elsie jumped up with a little gurgle of joy and ran ahead of her +mother to the flower. This was better than playing "secret" with +Rosie and Eva and the other girls, for their secrets were not real +ones, they were just made up and they did not amount to very much +after all, but this was a real one, kept up in earnest with the bees +and flowers. And now she was to be let into it! Mrs. Edson bent over +the bright yellow blossom, taking it gently in her fingers to prevent +it from nodding so briskly in the breeze that they should be unable to +examine it closely. + +"You see, dear," she said, pointing with a twig to the different parts +as she named them, "right here, in the exact center of the blossom, is +a bunch of green growing in the form of an oval, shaped somewhat like +an egg with the smaller end upward." + +"Yes, oh, yes!" Elsie answered eagerly. "What is it, mamma?" + +"Broadly speaking we will call it the ovary. I am not going to confuse +you by giving you too many hard words at first, words like corolla, +carpel, style, stigma, and the like. I shall name only two parts of +the flower for you to remember just now, because only two are really +necessary to be named at this point. So the name of this one +is--what?" + +"Ovary!" answered Elsie quickly. + +"Yes, ovary! It is called so because it contains ovules, which are +tiny seeds or eggs. That is the mother part of the plant." + +"The mother!" Elsie queried. "Why, mamma, is there a father too?" + +"Yes, dearie, many plants have both a mother and a father part, which +grow near together in the same flower, while other plants have only a +father part, and still others have only a mother part. This buttercup +has both, has both the male and the female principle. The ovary is the +female, and here, above it and surrounding it, you see a number of +taller spires, yellow in color and each of them bearing a tiny +enlargement, a kind of knob, at the top." + +"Yes, yes, but that--that can't be the papa part! Is it, mamma?" she +cried, examining the rather insignificant appearing spires dubiously. +"They don't look much like a--a papa!" she said in some +disappointment. Her mother laughed. + +"They certainly do not look much like a man-papa," she returned, "but +they form the papa part of the plant, nevertheless, and are truly the +papas of the baby buttercups. And their name is the second one that I +wish you to remember from now on. It is stamen." + +"Stamen!" said Elsie. + +"Yes, each of these stems is called a stamen, and they form the male +part of the plant, the father part. Many plants, those of the simpler +kinds, have only one stamen and it grows in the flower so that its +head hangs right above the ovary. Here you see that all of the stamens +are above the ovary, and the reason why they are placed there by +nature you will see very soon. What I wish now is to show you why the +bee came to the flower." + +"I know--it was for honey! Isn't that what you said before, mamma?" + +"Yes, darling, but do you see any honey here?" + +"No, mamma, and I never knew before that buttercups had honey. I +always thought honey came from a beehive." + +"It does come to us from a beehive, but it comes from flowers first, +and one of the many kinds that furnish it is this buttercup. The bee +sips it from the flowers, just a tiny bit from each blossom that he +visits, and when he has enough he takes it home to the hive and puts +it away to eat by-and-by, in the winter, when there are no flowers +growing for him to rifle. He does it just as men lay away money for 'a +rainy day,' as we say, and as squirrels lay up a store of nuts for the +cold weather. Now, suppose you count those flattened, round-cornered +parts of the buttercup--how many are there?" + +"Five," said Elsie quickly. + +"Yes, there are five of them, and they are called petals. You will +notice that they are much narrower and slighter at the bottom than +they are at the top. It is at the bottom that they are joined to the +central part of the flower. Now, just where they are connected with +this central part there is a tiny sack of honey." + +"It must be _very_ tiny," said Elsie, regarding the slender connection +earnestly, "for there isn't room enough for much, I'm sure. And it +must be all covered up, for I can't see any signs of it." + +"It is covered up. There is a very small scale, or leaf, over it to +protect it from those insects who have no right to the honey. But the +bee knows how to get at it, and he does so very quickly, once he +alights on the blossom, as we have just seen one do. For while he +appeared as if he were merely tumbling clumsily around on the flower +he was sampling those honey-sacks, and we saw how speedily he finished +all five of them on this flower and then buzzed busily away to the +other." + +"He was just the same as at dinner, then, wasn't he mamma! But why did +he go to the other flower--didn't he get all he wanted from this +one?" + +"No, darlingest, he gets but very little from each flower. If he could +take all he wanted from one he would never fly right to another. And +then, if all the other insects should do the same, the whole plan of +nature would fall through and there would soon be no life on earth." + +Elsie's eyes looked very large when she heard this. + +"Would I die, and you, mamma, and all of us--Alice and Rosie, and, oh, +everybody we know?" + +"Yes, dearie, all of us. Those few simple plants which still, in the +primitive way, fertilize themselves, are not enough and are too weak +to carry on the vegetation of the earth, and without the insects and +birds and the wind we never should have been born at all; for they are +necessary to make the plants reproduce their kinds and grow, and the +plants are necessary food for us as well as for the animals that we +eat, such as the hens and ducks and sheep and cows. So nature has +given each flower only a little honey, not enough for the bee, and he +is compelled to fly to many before he becomes satisfied. And this +brings us back to the stamen and ovary again, to show what they are +for and how the bee marries the two plants together after he has +collected his fee of delicious honey." + +"I am all 'tention," said Elsie, in so quaint an imitation of older +folks that her mother was forced to smile, knowing that she had a +listener that was interested, to say the least--a listener who felt +the importance and gravity of the study which they were now pursuing. +Elsie never attempted big words except when she felt dignified. + + + + +IV + +THE PAPA AND MAMMA PARTS OF THE PLANTS + + +"Now," said Mrs. Edson, taking hold of the buttercup again, "you see +here, at the top of each stamen, the slight enlargement that I +mentioned. It looks like a kind of knob, and it really is a hard, +hollow sack, or bag, containing a fine yellow powder, which is called +pollen. Is that plain so far, dearie?" + +"Pollen, yes, mamma! And do you wish me to remember that name too?" + +"Yes, it is very necessary that you should do so. You will soon learn +why. Now look again at the green ovary. That is also hollow, and +contains seeds or eggs, as I said before. In plants we call them +seeds and in animals eggs. And it is these seeds that grow into the +baby plants. But they cannot grow alone, without help. With a certain +kind of help they can and do grow, and what do you suppose that help +is?" + +Elsie gazed earnestly at her mother, trying to think it out. But she +was compelled to shake her head after all. + +"I can't imagine," she said. + +"Nothing but that some of the pollen shall be mixed with them," said +her mother. + +"Oh, I see, I see!" Elsie cried delightedly. "That is why the stamens +with the pollen in them are right over the ovaries." + +"Yes, dear, you have guessed it. The ripe pollen, falling into the +ripe ovary, would fertilize the seeds. And with some plants, the +earlier and simpler kinds, this is just what happens. But here you can +see that the ovary is not ripe. It is hard and green. When it is ripe +its color is yellow. But the pollen is ripe now, you can see it all +over the anthers, as the knobs or sacks are called. If the pollen +should fall upon the ovary now it would roll off without entering, and +would be wasted. Now what do you suppose happens?" + +"The--the--" + +Elsie hesitated, looking with very bright eyes at her mother, almost +sure enough to go on, but not quite. It seemed so peculiar, the +thought that had come to her, and she did not see just how it could +be. + +"You were going to say the bee, weren't you?" her mother smiled. + +"Oh yes--and would that have been right?" Elsie cried in delight. + +"Yes, that would have been exactly right. If we had been near enough +to examine the bee's motions closely we should have seen that he +alighted on the ovary, and then began to turn here and there in order +to get at the honey at the base of each petal. As he did so he brushed +off some of the pollen, for he was right in amongst the stamens, and +this powdery pollen stuck to his fuzzy body and he carried it away +with him." + +"But if he carried it away how could it get into the flower's ovary?" +Elsie asked, puzzled. + +"It did not get into this flower's ovary," her mother answered. +"Nature did not intend that it should, and that is why the bee is +introduced. For the other buttercup that he flew to, or some other +one that he would visit afterward, would have its ovary ripe, and when +he alighted on it in search of honey some of the pollen would be +brushed off his body right into this ovary that was all ready to +receive it." + +"Oh! But what would happen then? The little baby buttercups would +begin to grow right away, mamma?" + +"Yes, the ovary would close up and the seeds would begin to grow, very +slowly. They would keep on growing until they were ripe and then they +would burst their covering and fall out on the ground. Those of them +that were fortunate enough to become embedded in the soil, so that +they would not freeze in the winter, would come out in the spring as +little plants, which would soon bring forth buttercups. That is the +way with the wild flowers. But with the cultivated ones, like +cucumbers, apples, beans, and the like, all of those that are valuable +for eating, we are careful to save the seeds and plant them where they +will be safe. Instead of leaving them to chance we make a garden and +plant them in it where they will be snug and warm." + +"And wouldn't the seeds grow, or the little plants come up, if the bee +hadn't gone to the flowers, mamma?" + +"No, darling, it is the bee, or some other insect, or the birds, that +marry all the bright-colored plants in this way, as the wind marries +the soberhued ones. Without these we should have no vegetation." + +"But, mamma, marry! Why do you say they marry? I thought only men and +women married." + +"The marriage that takes place between men and women, dear, is only a +repetition of the marriage of plants. Its object is the same--to +reproduce the race. Plants began to marry long, long before men and +women ever came on earth and have been doing it ever since, +fortunately for us, because if they should give up the practice we +should have to follow suit. The earth would go back to the barren +state in which it was before life came to it." + +"It seems so strange," said Elsie. "Why, I never heard of anything so +funny! A bee, just a little bee, and without him--" + +"Funny is scarcely the word," Mrs. Edson smiled, "but it is certainly +wonderful. The pumpkin, the bean, the pear, the squash, the orange, +all the fruits and vegetables that we eat, and which the animals eat, +must be fertilized in order to reproduce their kind, and all the +fertilizing is done either by the wind, which blows the pollen from +one plant to another, or by birds and insects. But this is only a +small part of the secret I have to tell you, just the beginning. There +are many more wonderful things to come than I have told you yet, but I +think this is enough for the first time. You would better think over +what you have heard until tomorrow, when I will tell you the next +step, which is about the animals. There are four things in this lesson +that you must remember: + +"First, every male plant has at least one stamen, which bears pollen. + +"Second, every female plant has one ovary which contains seeds. + +"Third, the seeds in the ovary must be fertilized by the pollen in the +stamens in order to be able to grow and bear children. + +"Fourth, flowers are fertilized by birds, insects and the wind. + +"Do you think you can remember all that, darling?" + +"Oh, yes, mamma, I'm sure I can!" said Elsie. She thought a moment and +then added: "It was very nice of that bumble-bee to mistake my nose +for a flower, I'm sure, for it was almost as if he should say, +'Doesn't she look sweet--there must be honey there!' But I guess he +didn't think I was very sweet when I almost scared him to death, poor +fellow!" + + + + +V + +THE FIRST LIFE ON EARTH + + +The next day Elsie was so eager for the hour to come when she should +learn the secret of the animals that she had been waiting in the +hammock quite a little while when her mother came down stairs and as +soon as she appeared in sight Elsie clapped her hands joyously, crying +out: + +"Now I shall hear how the animals get their honey, sha'n't I, mumsey? +But, mumsey, there isn't anything like the petals of a buttercup on an +animal, unless it's his ears--do animals have their honey there--where +they join the body--like the buttercups?" + +Mrs. Edson could not help laughing at this funny notion. + +"No, darling," she answered, "animals have no honey anywhere. In the +plants there is honey because they must have something to attract the +insects to them, for they are rooted in the ground and can't move +around to carry their pollen to the other plants. And this pollen must +be carried, you remember, for that is the way, and the only way, in +which little ones are made to be born. So the flower has the honey in +order to pay the insect for marrying it. But animals can move around. +They can go to each other and carry their own pollen, so they do not +need honey or anything but themselves to attract each other. In +animals there is love instead of honey. They love each other, in their +way, and so come together and mingle their eggs and pollen. Only it +is not called pollen in animals, as I said before. It is called +_zoosperms_, pronounced 'zoo-o-sperms.' That is another name that you +must not forget, for it is to the animal what pollen is to the plant. +And in order that little animals may be born it is quite as necessary +that the zoosperms cover or fertilize the eggs, as, with the plants, +it is for the pollen to fertilize the seeds." + +"But, mamma," said Elsie, wonderingly, "you said, I think, that every +plant had an ovary--" + +"No, darling, I said that every _female_ plant had an ovary." + +"Oh, yes, female plant! That has an ovary, and every male plant has a +stamen, and I think you said that they must have, didn't you?" + +"Yes, dear, in order to reproduce their kind they must have--why?" + +"Well, then, does every male animal have a stamen and every female an +ovary?" + +"Certainly darling! And let me repeat that the products of the two +must be mingled in order to bring forth little animals. That is just +what I am going to tell you about today." + +"And do you mean, mamma, that honey in the plants grows into love in +the animals?" Elsie asked, her eyes very wide. + +"Oh, that is a very beautiful thought for my little girl to have!" +Mrs. Edson exclaimed, smoothing Elsie's hair lovingly. "And, yes, that +is the truth, put very poetically. Love is sweet, like the honey that +it replaces--at least it is for us human beings. Probably with the +animals it is not of just the same quality that it is with us, for +they do not act as if it were, but at least the animals are an +improvement on the plants in this respect, and the love that they feel +for each other finally evolves, in us, to become the sweet thing that +we find it to be." + +"Isn't that lovely--and so strange!" exclaimed Elsie. + +"Yes, darling, it is lovely, and very strange. There are various kinds +of love, as well as various degrees of the same kind, but this is a +subject a little too deep for us to take up just yet. What I wish now +is to teach you how the animals marry. And I will begin by saying that +all forms of reproduction, which is the name given to having +children, follow the same principle. The animals marry in a way that +is only a variation of the plant way, and men and women marry in a way +that is a variation of the plant and animal ways. But let us begin +right, with the first appearance of life on earth." + +"Yes, mamma," Elsie cried eagerly. "But the _first_ life! That must +have been very, very long ago, wasn't it?" + +"It was so far back in the history of the world that we can scarcely +more than guess how long ago it must have been. We do not even know +where it first appeared or just how it came to be. Some scientists +believe that it occurred at the mouth of the Nile River, in Africa, in +the rich soil that the river deposits there when it overflows its +banks. Others think it was in the sea, or along the shores of some +ocean in a tropical country. But we need not go into that here. What +we do know is that the hot sun, shining on a certain spot on the earth +or sea, which was just in the right condition, produced the first body +containing life that the globe ever had, and that this body was only a +little speck of jelly-like substance, which we call protoplasm, +pro-to-plas-m. The word means 'first growth', for it was the first +thing that ever appeared that was capable of growing. We also call it +a cell. Now there was only one cell in the world. It had no +companions. And what do you suppose happened?" + +"It must have been very lonesome," suggested Elsie, sympathetically. + +"Yes, it must have been--certainly it must if it could feel or think. +But, at all events, whether or not it did feel lonely, it began right +away to make companions. Of course you can't think how it did that, +can you, dear?" + +"I--I am afraid not," Elsie hesitated. + +"Yet it was the very simplest way imaginable. It merely divided itself +into two parts, each of which was just like the other." + +"Oh!" exclaimed Elsie. "But, then, mamma, who could tell which was the +father or mother, and which was the child? Or were they just brother +and sister, or two brothers?" + +"There was not then what we now call 'sex', for that was only the +beginning of families, so to say, and it was very crude, as all things +are when they are first started. But perhaps we might call one cell +the mother of the other, since it is always the female, and not the +male, that brings forth children, though nobody could tell which was +the mother and which was the child." + +"Well," said Elsie, "_that_ is the strangest thing yet!" + +"It seems so to us, because it is so different from our way of +reproducing, but it was the natural way, and the same process is going +on to this day. Even little girls are born in a manner which, though +it appears very different, is the same in principle, as we shall +see." + +"But, mamma, I thought that all living beings were obliged to have a +stamen or an ovary!" + +"So they are obliged, dear! This cell grew until it was too large and +heavy to be supported by its structure, or lack of structure, and then +it fell apart. Force, or growth, was the stamen here, and the cell +itself was the ovary." + +"Oh, then force or growth was the first stamen, mamma?" + +"No, darling, it was not, unless we should call growth the stamen of +today--which we might do, in a way. But the first stamen was, in form, +a ray of the sun, and the first ovary was the earth, soil. For don't +you recall that this cell, which was the first life-form, was produced +by the sun shining on the earth or sea?" + +Elsie pondered on this a moment. Then her face brightened. + +"Oh, now I see!" she exclaimed. "And what a beautiful set of changes, +like real poetry! The stamen in a flower, and growth, and a ray of +sunlight are all one at bottom!" + +"Yes, darling, it is beautiful poetry, when one comes thoroughly to +understand it. And when we find that love is the source of all these +different forms and processes it becomes more beautiful than ever. Now +let us go on a little further and you will see how that is." + +"Please hurry, mamma!" said Elsie. "I wish to find out where I came +from, and you are going to tell me that, aren't you?" + +"Certainly, darling! That is what I have been leading up to all this +time. Now we will speak of a number of higher growths than the single +cells are, for there are several things yet to be made plain before +you will be able to understand the highest growth of all, which is +that of a human being like yourself." + + + + +VI + +WHERE BABY ANIMALS COME FROM + + +At that moment there sounded a hoarse noise near by, which was +followed by a splash, as if some body had tumbled into the pond. Elsie +looked at her mother roguishly and said: + +"Old Croaky!" + +Old Croaky was a granddaddy bullfrog with whom they were very well +acquainted, for he sang for them every evening. + +"I am glad that he spoke just as he did," Mrs. Edson smiled, "for he +reminds me that frogs are as good an example as I can take next. He +belongs to one of the lower classes of animals, not so very much +higher than the plants. Now, in the plants, you will remember, it was +necessary for the pollen to enter the ovary in order to reach and +fertilize the seeds. But with the frog it is not so. The female lays +the eggs first, and just as she is doing so the male places himself in +such a position towards her that he can mingle his zoosperms with her +eggs as they come out. That fertilizes them and they immediately begin +to grow. First they become tadpoles, and then little frogs." + +"What, was Old Croaky ever a little tadpole, mumsey?" + +"Yes, darling, he was. Every frog was once. And before that he was an +egg, one of many, in his mother's ovary, and it is so with all +animals. They all of them have eggs and zoosperms, just as the plants +have pollen and seeds. Only, with most of the animals, the zoosperms +must enter the ovary in order to fertilize the eggs, as is the way of +the plants. And it is the same with the birds. They are higher, that +is later, in the scale of life than the frogs are. Now the higher the +creature the more complicated becomes the process of reproduction, +even though the principle is always the same. It is always growth, +always the life within, forcing itself out to take form, and it is +only the forms that change. The life and force within are the same +that the first single cell had." + +"It is very wonderful, mamma," Elsie said, awed by the mystery, even +though she was very far from grasping the whole of it. "And the birds, +mamma, have they stamens, and eggs inside? I thought their eggs were +outside, in a little nest. And some of them are, mumsey, because, you +know, I have seen them lots of times." + +"Yes, the eggs come out where you can see them, in time, as the frog's +do, but at first they are inside the mother bird, as they are with the +frogs and all animals. Only, it is not with the birds as it is with +the frogs, for the bird's eggs must be fertilized by the male +zoosperms while they are still within the mother bird. The zoosperms +must enter the ovary as the pollen must enter the ovary of the plant. +So the male bird, like most male animals, has a stamen which is a +repetition of that of the flower, made of such a shape that it can +reach the eggs in the mother bird's ovary and fertilize them there. +Then they come out, they are 'laid' as we say, and we see them in the +nest which the mother and father birds have prepared for them. And +just as the seeds need to be covered and kept warm, when they have +fallen from the ripe pods to the ground, in order that they may live +and grow into baby plants, so the bird's eggs must be covered and kept +warm and safe in order that they may grow into birdies. It is just +here that you may see where the honey of the plants begins to become +love in the higher species. For instead of leaving the eggs to be +protected or not, according to chance, as is the way of the plants, +the mother bird covers and warms and protects them herself. She sits +on the nest and keeps them safe with her own body and feathers. Isn't +that lovely! And the father bird goes to market in the woods and +fields and brings her the daintiest and best food he can find." + +"Isn't he _nice!_" said Elsie appreciatively. + +"Yes, he is nice, and so is his wife, the mother bird. Just think! A +bird is the most energetic and tireless creature in all animated +nature. It is always on the move, urged by the force and overflowing +life within its body, and to sit there quietly all alone on the eggs +day after day and night after night--oh, it must be hard, so hard that +we can scarcely realize the extent of the sacrifice she is making for +her little children. That is what love is like. And the higher a +creature is in the scale of life the more love it has, until, in men +and women, the acme is reached and they not only give up their +comfort for each other, and especially for their children, but even +their lives themselves. With human beings one can tell how high a +given one is in the scale of humanity by the amount of love he has. +Some persons have very little, and they are nearer the animal plane: +some have a great deal, and the more they have, the less selfish they +are, the higher they have risen. For love is the real stamen that +fertilizes the world and makes it grow, and the more one has of it the +more life one gives to the universe." + +Elsie felt very grave for some moments, thinking out this deep matter. +It was too complex for her to realize wholly, but she caught glimpses +of the immortal beauty of the ideas and she was awed by it. Suddenly +she threw her arms around her mother's neck and kissed her +passionately. It had occurred to her all at once how much her mother +loved her and how much she must have sacrificed for her sake during +all the years of her little life, and though she had no conception of +the full extent of the sacrifice she saw enough to make her feel like +crying for very love of that dear and sweet mamma. Her mother +understood her and taking her in her arms hugged her closely, sitting +in silence with her for a long time, both of them too full of love for +each other to speak. And so the lesson for the day ended. + + + + +VII + +WHERE BABY GIRLS COME FROM + + +"Now, mumsey," cried Elsie the next day, running to her mother at the +hour set aside for their baby-talks, "I know what comes next--it's I, +isn't it?" + +"Yes, darling, it's you. And it's I, too. Isn't that a beautiful +thought, that you and I held the same relation to each other that the +mother bird holds to the egg from which the birdies come! For once you +were a tiny, tiny egg inside mamma just as it was with the birds." + +"Oh-h!" gasped Elsie, gazing at her mother in bewilderment. She could +not realize such an astounding thing at once. + +"Yes, darling," Mrs. Edson went on, "every female human being has an +ovary, just as every female flower has, and just as every female bird +has; and, also like them, she has seeds or eggs in this ovary. And she +has a great many of them. They have been growing within her ever since +she was a baby, and when she is about twelve years old they begin to +ripen, one at a time, and pass from the ovary into a nest that is all +ready for them inside the female body. This nest we call the womb. At +first, while she is so young, the womb is not strong enough to hold +the egg while it grows, so the egg soon leaves its nest to come into +the world and be lost, as so very many seeds of the plant are. As it +does so it acts in such a way on the young girl that, when she first +becomes aware that something which seems strange is happening to her, +she is frightened and does not know what to do. And as you, darling, +are now at the age when this must come to you very soon, I am going to +prepare you for it, so that you may know that it is natural, coming to +all girls of about your age, and that there is nothing to be alarmed +over. All the talks that we have had were intended as a kind of +introduction to this event and its consequences, for it is the +greatest that enters a girl's life before she has grown fully to be a +woman. And you were once one of these tiny eggs. More than that, you +now have within your body, a great number of that very kind of eggs +from which you sprang." + +Elsie sat with her eyes in breathless interest on her mother, so +filled with wonder and speculation that she could not ask a single +question. Mrs. Edson proceeded: + +"I must repeat dear, because it is so very important for you to +remember, that every woman has an ovary which contains many seeds or +eggs, just as the female flower has. These eggs, if left unfertilized, +will pass from the body and never grow any more. But each one, if +fertilized by the papa, as the bird's eggs were, and as the flower +seeds were, will stay in a little nook inside the mother's body, where +it will grow and grow until the time comes for it to burst forth into +the world, following the same principle that the first cell followed +in reproducing, and which all living things follow always. The life +within forces it away from the parent, to become a separate growth. +Then it will come forth, and behold, the tiny seed or egg has grown to +be a baby girl or boy, weighing several pounds!" + +"Oh-h!" Elsie gasped again. "And that is how--how--I--came to be born, +mamma!" + +"Yes, darlingest, it is the way in which every living person was born. +There is not, and there cannot be, any other way. Each child is a part +both of its father and mother. The egg in the mother would never grow +into a baby unless it had first been fertilized by the father, who +does so through his great love for the mamma, just as with the birds +and animals, though his love is of a higher kind than that of the +lower orders." + +"And does the mother-woman warm the eggs as the bird in the nest does, +mamma, while the papa-man brings her nice things to eat?" + +"Yes, dearie, only the mother-woman has the nest inside her body, as I +have said, and she keeps the little one safe and warm there much +longer than the bird sits on her nest. And think of all the years +after the baby is born that she waits on and cares for it! There is no +other love that equals in devotion that of the mother." + +Elsie, without a word, her eyes swimming in tears, kissed her mother +affectionately. She had realized a little more of what she owed to +her. + +"Now," said Mrs. Edson, "I must tell you how to care for this nest in +which, by and by, when you have grown up and have a husband and are +strong enough, you will be keeping a little baby of your own. Because +many girls who become married do not know these things there is a +dreadful amount of sickness and misery in the world, all needless. And +it does seem too bad--when merely a few words at the right time would +have saved it all!" + +Of course Elsie was not old enough to understand how this could be, so +she said nothing, but sat looking earnestly at her mother as she went +on: + +"In the first place, dear, you must know that the little baby's nest, +which we call the womb, is placed in the lower portion of the woman's +body, just above the 'private parts'. Perhaps it is put there because +it is the safest place for it in the whole body--for the eggs and +womb are very delicate, and must not be exposed to any danger of +injury. So it grows in the interior of the trunk, where outside +dangers would be less likely to reach and spoil it, so that the woman +would be sick all her life and never have any children. Many hopeless +female complaints, ending with premature and painful death, are caused +by lack of proper care of the womb and its entrance. That care +consists chiefly in preventing the womb from being touched by +anything, and keeping the entrance clean. It is very simple--just keep +the entrance clean and the womb untouched by anything. An observance +of such slight rules as these would have saved many and many a poor +soul from a life of continual misery and suffering. + +"I have told you, dear, long ago how to keep the entrance clean. And +now that you will soon begin to menstruate, as the passing out of the +eggs is called, I shall have but little to add to what you already +know, but I will repeat it from the beginning in order that you may +have it all clear in your mind. + +"First, bathe the entrance every time you bathe the rest of your body, +and at such other times as you may feel the need of doing so. Never +neglect this. It may have evil consequences. Just keep it clean, and +never touch it for any other purpose. And be careful to use only your +own towels, for disease is easily communicated to these parts by +cloths that are not clean, and you never can be too careful in this +respect. It is plain enough, and easy enough to do, isn't it +darling--and you will always remember about it, won't you?" + +"Oh, yes, mamma, that is easy enough!" Elsie said quickly. "I could +remember a lot more than that, I'm sure." + +"It would have been so infinitely much better for so many poor sick +creatures if they had known and remembered even that!" Mrs. Edson +sighed, holding her little daughter closely, as if she would protect +her from not only that harm but all others. "But," she continued, "I +must now tell you what you may be expecting to come to you before +long, when it will be harder to keep the entrance clean than it has +been so far, and when to keep it clean will be more necessary than +ever. + +"Every twenty-eight days, dearie, beginning with you very soon now, +there will be a flow of blood into the little baby's nest, the womb, +and this will come out of your body through this entrance to the womb. +As soon as you see any signs of it on your body or clothing you must +come right and tell me, as you would if you had cut your finger or +stubbed your toe on a stone. It is something to be very proud of for +it shows the possibility of motherhood, and it must be given the very +best care, which is, as I have said, chiefly to keep the parts clean. +By and by when you are grown old enough and strong enough, and have a +husband, who will fertilize the eggs, one of them will grow into a +little baby, but it will be a long time yet before that can be, and +until then you will have this flow every twenty-eight days, for the +sake of your health. This brings more work for the womb to do, while +the menses, as they are called, continue, and therefore you may feel +out of sorts both mentally and bodily for two or three days. But this +will pass away when the flow ceases, and if proper care is taken of +the womb and passages you will never feel anything worse than this. +Some women feel great pain at this time, but almost always the reason +is that some of their internal parts have been injured in one way or +another. Sometimes lack of proper food, sufficient fresh air and sun, +or not enough exercise and clean water are responsible for a portion +of the pain. In order to have strong reproductive organs a woman +should be healthy in all bodily ways, and anything that she can do to +improve her general health will be favorable to her at the time of +the menses as well as at all times. Do you think you understand all +this, darling, and can remember it?" + +"I don't know, mamma," said Elsie hesitatingly. "There is a lot to it, +but I'll try." + +"That is my dear little girl! To try is the next thing to doing. Only +remember that when you don't know what to do, and have tried, come to +mamma. That is one great reason why mammas are--to help little girls +who have tried." + +Elsie kissed her mother warmly, and then sat looking dreamily out +towards the woods. She had learned many strange things and was +thinking them over. Suddenly she spoke, as if unconsciously, saying: +"Who would ever have thought that so much could come out of it!" + +"Out of what?" her mother asked. + +"Why, out of a bee trying to step on my nose!" said Elsie. + +(The End.) + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Every Girl's Book, by George F. 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