ren, just as we told you that Christmas presents came
from Santa Claus. You came to know that papa and mamma are Santa Claus and
that Santa Claus is a fairy story--and so you have probably already
learned how the baby came. The baby really grows in the mother's body--did
you know that? Do you know how long it takes for it to grow there? No? It
takes nine months. Before you were born, you were growing inside of your
mother's body. The blood from your mother's body flowed into your body;
in this way your body grew. When the baby comes out of its mother's body,
it does not hurt the baby, but it hurts the mother. It was so when you
were born, but your mother was so happy to think she was to have a baby
and to feel it growing inside her body that she did not think much about
the pain. If your mother is ever a little tired and cross, you must
remember that she loves you beyond anything that pain can measure and that
she deserves your tenderest care."

At this or some other fitting time, the father or mother may give the
child some further intimation of the process by which the child comes to
grow in the mother's body, and in some such way as follows: "Some one may
have told you how babies come to grow in their mothers' bodies. But most
people are ignorant about these things. I think I can explain it to you a
little if you will look for a moment at this flower that I have in my
hand, because the coming of a baby in the mother's body is in some ways
like the coming of the seed in the body of the flower. You have probably
learned at school in your nature-study work that these are--what? Yes,
the petals. And these stamens, and this is the pistil. Do you notice the
powder on the end of the stamen? That is called pollen. If you put that
powder under magnifying glass, each grain will look like a grain of wheat.
Now, do you notice that the pistil spreads out here at the base like a
vase with a narrow neck and big bowl? I am going to cut the thick part
open. Do you notice those tiny things like seeds? Yes, those are seeds,
but they would not grow just by themselves. A grain of that pollen gets on
to the end of the pistil (sometimes the wind, sometimes a bee puts it
there), and immediately it begins to send a long thread from itself right
down the center of the pistil, and this thread carries at the front the
heart of the pollen grain, and when it reaches the tiny seed the two go
together and the heart of the pollen joins with the heart