A Little Garden Calendar for Boys and Girls

Originally published in 1905, this Little Garden Calendar is offered to parents and teachers, and to children themselves who are old enough to read, with a motto in mind that "knowledge begins in wonder". The author has tried to tell in simple language a few of the wonders of plant life, and to set down certain easy methods of observation, including planting, tending, and gathering the harvests, from month to month, throughout the year. Along with this it has been his aim to call attention to the more curious characteristics of certain plants -- the really human instincts and habits of some, the family relations of others, the dependence of many upon mankind, animals, and insects, and the struggle for existence of all. Simple botany plays a part in the little narrative, which forms a continuous story from chapter to chapter, interwoven with a number of briefer stories -- traditions, fairy tales, and the like, all relating to plant life and origin. These are presented by way of entertainment -- to illuminate fact with fancy -- to follow, as it were, the path of knowledge through the garden of imagination.

About the author:

Albert Bigelow Paine (1861-1937) was an American author and biographer. He is best known as the author of the authorized biography of Mark Twain (4 volumes, 1912) and as the editor of Twain's letters (2 volumes, 1917).

Contents Covered:

• Introduction
• January
  • You may begin your garden right away
  • Your garden may not look as I have it here
  • Many seeds are given wings
  • I think seeds know the months
• February
  • Little plants won't stand much handling
  • Hey for the merry little sweet pease
  • Even clover belongs to the pulse family
  • Beans and morning-glories twine to the right
  • The honeysuckle twines always to the left
• March
  • Still it was really a radish
  • The sun swings like a great pendulum
  • Long before there were any railroads and cities
  • Did you ever see the little man in the pansy?
• April
  • The yellow dust is a food for the seed
  • The coming of the corn
  • Cross by name and cross by nature
  • A peppery family
  • For in that dish was Davy's corn
• May
  • Sweet pease have to be put down pretty deep
  • Different families of ants have different droves of cows
  • There are many ways of producing species
• June
  • Then they went down into the strawberry patch
  • How the rose became queen
  • The sun is the greatest of all
• July
  • A plant is divided into three principal parts
  • There are exogens and endogens
  • I don't see what weeds are for, anyway
• August
  • There are just two kinds of leaves
  • Sometimes I think plants can see and hear
  • There are plants which do not bloom
  • The princess by the sea
• September
  • A flower really has clothes
  • A flower has many servants
  • A flower may really reason
  • Some flowers live off other flowers and plants
  • The prince and the thread of gold
• October
  • Seeds are made to be planted
  • There are bitter nuts and sweet ones
  • There are many things called fruits
• November
  • There are annuals, biennials, and perennials
  • Plants know how to spread
  • All thanks for the plants
• December
  • New gardens in the windows
  • To the garden of sleep
  • In the gardens of Christmas
  • Some verses, and then goodbye