The morning-glory lay rolled up in the bud down under the leaves. One
day it bloomed.
[Illustration: [Morning-Glory]]
The firm stem held it up, the bud unrolled, and the blossom stood there,
fresh and fair.
The bees saw it from afar, and came as fast as they could.
They flew to the pink corolla, and, entering, enjoyed the feast spread
for them.
The morning-glory, because of their coming, had filled the nectar cups
and opened the boxes of snow-white pollen.
One after the other the bees came, drank the nectar, and carried away
the pollen. As fast as the cups were emptied they were filled again.
The honeybees and the bumblebees were provided with baskets, which they
filled with pollen; but the other bees carried it away on the long hairs
of their bodies.
The morning-glory glowed in the sunshine all day long, happy, no doubt,
in the consciousness that the little seed-children had begun to grow. It
was because of them the bees were made so welcome.
[Illustration: [Morning-Glory]]
We can imagine the flower might feel like saying, “This is my
seed-children’s birthday party; come often, dear bees, and sip my nectar
and take my pollen. But be like the good fairies and bring each a gift
to my seed-children.”
The bees buzzed and came and went and came and went.
Each time they took away nectar and pollen to their hives, and each time
left something for the seed-children.
Do you suppose they left a cap of darkness, and a pair of seven-league
boots, and a sword that always conquered, and a magic carpet that took
people wherever they wanted to go, as the fairies used to do in the
times when fairies were alive and came to the christenings of little
children?
I do not think the bees brought any of these things to the birthday
party of the seed-children.
The bees, not being real fairies, were obliged to bring what they could.
[Illustration: [Morning-Glory]]
Now, the day that the pink morning-glory bloomed, a great many other
morning-glories came out of their buds, and they all gave the bees a
welcome.
They filled their cups with nectar and opened their boxes of snow-white
pollen.
Such a feast as was spread for the bees! Blue morning-glories, and pink
and purple and white ones, on all sides they stood, fresh and smiling,
and invited the bees to come.
And the bees came. They went from one to the other as fast as they
could. They sucked up nectar from all, and took it home and made
morning-glory honey of it. And they gathered snow-white pollen from all,
and took it home and made morning-glory beebread of it.
But they did not carry home all the snow-white pollen. They bore some of
it as gifts to the seed-children.
[Illustration: [Morning-Glory]]
The seed-children needed the pollen; they could not grow into seeds
without it, and they needed the pollen from another flower, not that
from their own. So the pollen the bees brought them was better far than
caps or boots or carpets or any of those things the fairies used to
bring to human children.
And this is why the morning-glories made the bees so welcome. They could
not take their pollen to each other, for they could not leave their
stems; so they employed the bees to carry it for them.
The morning-glories nodded to each other across the garden. “I will send
my bee to you,” one said to another, and the bee came and left a few
grains of pollen from the friendly flower. In this way the
morning-glories exchanged pollen all day long, so that each had plenty
of fresh neighbors’ pollen to give the seed-children.
[Illustration: [Morning-Glory]]
The flowers lasted all day, from sunrise to sunset, and the nectar
lasted all day, and the snow-white pollen. But when night came the bees
went home to sleep, and the morning-glories, too, slept. They rolled in
the edges of their corollas so that the way to the nectar cups was
closed.
Next day the morning-glories did not open again. There was no more
nectar in their cups and no more snow-white pollen in their anther
cells. Other morning-glories came out of their buds and invited the
bees, but these staid shut. Soon the corollas, faded now and no longer
lovely to look at, fell off. Their work was done. They had been
beautiful to show how happy they were and how lovely life was; by their
beauty, too, they had brought the bees and gained the pollen they wanted
to make other lovely flowers live. Now, their messages of love and
happiness given, they fell off, and the pollen boxes, empty and
withered, fell with them.
But they left behind life and hope, for each tiny seed had received its
grain of life-assuring pollen. For only the corolla and the stamens
fell. The seed-children still clung to the stem; they lay in their
cradles, nicely wrapped up by the green calyx leaves. And then the
little stems that held the seed-babies’ cradles turned down and hid the
little cradles under the leaves.
The seed-babies grew and grew. They would soon have outgrown their
cradles, only the strange thing is, the cradles grew too! They grew as
fast as the seeds and kept them snug and safe.
[Illustration: [Morning-Glory]]
So all summer long, until the frost came and it was time for the
morning-glories to take their long winter sleep, the buds opened in the
morning. All summer long the bright morning-glories filled their cups
with nectar and opened their boxes of snow-white pollen for the bees.
And all summer long the seed-children received their pollen and grew and
grew in their cradles that grew too. But after a while the green cradles
turned brown. And after another while the brown cradles opened to let
the seed-children look out, and as soon as this happened every little
black seed—for they had grown quite black by this time—fell out of its
cradle! It did not hurt it to fall out, for it tumbled and rolled down
to the earth, where, at last, the wind came and covered it with leaves,
as the robins covered up the babes in the woods. And the little black
seed-babies lay there as snug as seed-babies could be.
Then the snow came and spread a blanket over them, and the leaves and
the snow kept them as warm as they wanted to be until springtime came
and the snow went away; and the seeds began to stretch themselves and
think it was time to wake up and go out and see what was going on in the
big world above.
[Illustration: [Morning-Glory]]