"When the stars are a-twinkle far up in the sky

I never can love them because they're too high.

So because they are close to the path as I pass

I give all my love to the stars in the grass."

"What is that you said, Johnny Chuck?" demanded Peter, hopping out from behind a bunch of tall grass which had hidden him from Johnny. For an instant Johnny Chuck was startled. He had not supposed that anyone was near him. He drew himself up with as much dignity as he could. "I said," replied he, "that I love the stars in the grass. Have you any objections, Peter Rabbit?"

Peter chuckled. "None whatever, Johnny," he replied. "You may love all the stars you please for all I care. But why not talk sense? Whoever heard of stars in the grass?"

"You have now," retorted Johnny Chuck, rather sharply, and turning his back waddled off.

"Don't be cross, Johnny Chuck," begged Peter, hopping after him. "I didn't mean to offend you. You see, I never heard of stars in the grass before. Tell me where they are so that I may see them too."

"Go look for them," grunted Johnny Chuck. Your eyes are as good as mine, and if I can find them you can." And not another word could Peter get out of Johnny Chuck.

"Stars in the grass!" repeated Peter to himself, as he sat looking after Johnny Chuck. "I don't know now what he means, but perhaps if I follow that little path he has just come along I'll find out."

So Peter started along the little path through the grass. This time he didn't hurry. He went slowly so as to look on both sides of him. If there were really stars in the grass he didn't want to miss them. He had gone some little distance without seeing anything unusual. Then off at one side he saw several bright yellow star-like flowers, and in a flash he understood what Johnny Chuck had meant. "Johnny Chuck's stars!" cried Peter. "How stupid of me not to think of flowers! Of course these are what he meant."

With two or three quick jumps he was over to them. They were very like six-pointed little stars. They grew in small clusters at the top of a slender, somewhat hairy stalk, but only one flower in each cluster was open, for it is their usual way to open only one at a time. Occasionally there will be two, but rarely if ever more.

The leaves were taller than the flower stalk and were very like blades of grass, each with a rib down the center. Within, the six petal-like parts of the flower were bright yellow, but without they were greenish and hairy. The stamens also were yellow.

Peter at once thought of the Blue-eyed Grass, the small cousin of the Blue Flag which he had found earlier in the season, and he was sure that the two must be cousins. In this, however, he was mistaken, for the Yellow Star Grass, which is the name of the flowers he had just found, belong to quite another family.

"I don't wonder Johnny Chuck loves them," said Peter. "I love them myself."

For some time he sat there admiring them and watching certain small Bees gathering pollen from them to take home for food for their babies. When he had tired of this he started on towards the Smiling Pool. As he drew near he heard Redwing the Blackbird screaming excitedly over in the alders near the head of the Smiling Pool, and at once hurried over to find out what was going on. It was very wet and boggy in there and Peter had to pick his way rather slowly. By the time he got there the excitement was all over. It seems that Redwing had caught sight of Mr. Blacksnake, whom he hates. But Mr. Blacksnake had gone on about his business and disappeared, and Redwing and Mrs. Redwing had resumed the work of hunting for food enough to keep the four hungry children in their nest quiet.

Peter had watched hungry young birds being fed too often to be interested, and turned away in disappointment. But within two jumps he saw something that put all thoughts of Redwing and his family out of his head. It was a plant with several beautiful pink flowers more than a foot above the ground at the top of a slender, smooth stalk which bore no leaves. At the first glimpse he thought he had found again the Arethusa or Swamp Pink, which had so delighted him when Longbill the Woodcock had showed it to him earlier in the season. Then he remembered that the Arethusa had but one blossom on a stalk, and as he drew nearer he saw at once that this plant was quite different, though from its appearance he knew it must belong to the same family. It did; it was another member of the beautiful Orchid family.

Looking closely at one of these flowers, Peter found that while it had both sepals and petals they were so much alike that he hardly knew one from the other. As was the case with the other Orchids he had found, this one had one petal very much larger than the others and quite different from them in appearance. Such a petal is, as you already know, called the lip. In the Arethusa this lip is the lower petal, and has three little ridges of hairs. In the Lady's-slipper the lip is in the shape of a bag and is also the lower petal. But in the flower Peter was now looking at the lip was the upper petal and stood nearly erect. It was covered thickly with white, yellow and pinkish hairs which looked almost like stamens.

Peter thought right away that the flower looked very much as if it were upside down. As was the case with the Arethusa the pistil looked to Peter much as if it were made up of three petals. Probably when you see this flower for the first time you will think the same thing.

As Peter sat there admiring the beautiful pink blossoms, along came Lady Bee and alighted on that hairy lip. Then a surprising thing happened. It happened so unexpectedly that it made Peter blink. That lip dropped down as if hinged at the bottom so that Lady Bee was forced down where she would come against the pollen, some of which would stick to her. Of course when she visited another of these flowers the same thing would happen, and some of that pollen from the first flower would be left in the second flower.

When he thought to look for the leaves Peter found but one, and this grew out of the ground close to the bottom of the flower stalk. It was long, narrow and quite like a blade of grass. Peter counted the flowers on the stalk and found seven. A little way off was another stalk, and this had a dozen flowers and buds. As a matter of fact there are sometimes as many as fifteen.

"Well," said Peter, "I don't know what I have found, but it certainly is lovely."

"You've found the Grass Pink," said Redwing the Blackbird, who happened to come along just in time to overhear Peter. "When you said that it is lovely you told the truth for once."

Of course Grass Pink is simply a common name for this plant. Its real name is Calopogon, and while it is one of the loveliest of the Orchids it is not as rare as some of the others. Like its relatives it should not be picked. It is one of those flowers to be hunted for, and when found, admired and then left untouched.

Peter felt that he had found enough for that day, and when he had looked at those flowers to his heart's content he headed back for the dear Old Briar-patch to tell Mrs. Peter about them. He knew she wouldn't be interested, but he just had to tell someone. He knew she would think he had been wasting his time, but he knew better. Adding to knowledge is never a waste of time, and Peter knew that he had learned much that morning.