"But why is it called honey-locust?" asked Malcolm. "Do the bees make
honey in the trunk?"

"No," replied his governess; "the name comes from the sweetness of the
pulp around the seeds, which ripen in large flat pods, and of which boys
and girls are fond. But the flowers of this species are only small
greenish aments. Locust-wood is very durable, and, as it will bear
exposure to all kinds of weather, it is much used in shipbuilding and as
posts for gates. It is thought that the shittah and shittim wood of the
Bible, of which Moses made the greater part of the tables, altars and
planks of the tabernacle, was the same as the black acacia found in the
deserts of Arabia and about Mount Sinai and the mountains which border
on the Red Sea, and is so hard and solid as to be almost incorruptible.

"And now," added Miss Harson, "reading of the numerous relations of the
locust, considering that 'the acacia, not less valued for its airy
foliage and elegant blossoms than for its hard and durable wood; the
braziletto, logwood and rosewoods of commerce; the laburnum; the furze
and the broom, both the pride of the otherwise dreary heaths of Europe;
the bean, the pea, the vetch, the clover, the trefoil, the lucerne--all
staple articles of culture by the farmer--are so many species of
Leguminosae, and that the gums Arabic and Senegal, kino and various
precious medicinal drugs, not to mention indigo, the most useful of all
dyes, are products of other species,--it will be perceived that it would
be difficult to point out an order with greater claims upon the
attention.'"

CHAPTER XVI.

_THE WALNUT FAMILY AND THE AILANTHUS_.

"The walnut family," said Miss Harson, "with the ugly name
_Juglandaceae_, are distinguished by pinnate, or compound, leaves, which
have an aromatic odor when crushed, and by blossoms in catkins. Of these
trees, the black walnut is one of the handsomest and most
highly prized."

"Are there any of them here?" asked Malcolm.

[Illustration: THE WALNUT TREE.]

"No," was the reply; "I do not think you have ever seen one. They are
more common in the western part of the Middle States and in the Western
States; in Ohio particularly they grow to a very large size. Solitary
trees are sometimes seen in this part of the country, and the branches,
extending themselves horizontally to a great distance, spread out into a
spacious head, which gives them a very majestic appearance. The trunk
is rough and furrowed, and the leaves have from six to ten pairs of
leaflets and an odd one. They are smooth, strongly serrated and rather
pointed; the color is a light, bright green. The catkins are green, from
four to seven inches long, and hang from the axils of the last year's
leaves. The leaves are much longer than those of the locust, and the
leaf-stalk is downy. The nut, which is very oily, is shaped like an
English walnut, but resembles it in no other way, as the shell is very
thick and dark-colored. When thoroughly dried, the black walnut is very
much liked--as I think some witnesses here could testify--and is used in
making candy."

"And just the nicest kind of candy, too," said the children, with one
voice.

Their governess smiled, for this was very much her own opinion.

"You do not know," she continued, "how strangely these nuts grow. They
have an outer husk, or rind, which when green is hard and has a very
pleasant smell; the tree then seems to be covered with green balls. As
the nuts ripen this outer part becomes so dark that it is almost black
and grows soft and spongy. A rich brown dye is made from it.
Black-walnut wood has long been famous for its beauty, and it grows
deeper and darker with age. It is handsomely shaded and takes a fine
polish, and this, with its durability, makes it very valuable for
furniture. Posts made of it will last a long time, and it can be put to
almost any use for which hard-wood is available.

"The walnut tree has a great variety of good qualities in addition to
its fine appearance and generous shade. From the kernel a valuable oil
may be obtained for use in cookery and in lamps. Bread has also been
made from the kernels. The spongy husk of the nuts is used as dyestuff.
It thus unites almost all the qualities desirable in a tree--beauty,
gracefulness and richness of foliage in every period of its growth; bark
and husks which may be employed in an important art; fruit valuable as
food; wood unsurpassed in durability and in elegance."

"I like English walnuts," said Clara, "they have such thin, pretty
shells; and papa, you know, can open them in just two halves with
a knife."

"Once," said Miss Harson, "I had a little bag sent to me made of two
very large walnut shells with blue silk between, and in this bag there
was a pair of kid gloves rolled up very tight."

"Oh!" exclaimed the children. It sounded like a fairy-tale, but they
knew that it was true, because Miss Harson said that it had really
happened. They were very much surprised, though, that a bag could be
made of nutshells, and that a pair of gloves could be crowded into so
small a compass.

"Did it come from England?" asked Malcolm.

"No," replied his governess; "it was sent to me from the island of
Madeira, where these nuts grow so abundantly that they have often been
called Madeira-nuts. It also grows abundantly in Europe, and the nuts
are used for dessert, pickling, and many other purposes, while the
poorer classes often depend largely on them for food."

"Do they eat 'em instead of bread?" asked Edith. "I'd like that; they're
ever so much nicer!"

"Perhaps you would not think so if you had hardly anything else to eat;
you would get tired of them then. In many places on the continent of
Europe the roads are lined with walnut trees for miles together, and in
the proper season the people may feast upon the fruit as much as they
like. A person, it is said, once traveled from Florence to Geneva and
ate nothing by the way but walnuts; but I must say that I should not
like to do it. One species bears a nut as large as an egg; but if kept
any time, it will shrink to half its natural size. The shell of this
great walnut, we are told, is sometimes used for making little
ornamental boxes to hold gloves and small fancy-articles; so you see
that mine was not the only glove-bag made of two walnut-shells."

"How pretty they must be!" said Clara. "I should like to see one."

"I think that I can make one when I get a large nut, and I shall be glad
to show you how it is done."

This was a delightful prospect, and the children volunteered to save for
that especial purpose all the large nuts they could find.

"The English walnut tree," continued Miss Harson, "is a native of
Persia or the North of China, and the long pinnated leaves seem to mark
its Oriental origin; but it has taken very kindly to its European home.
In some parts of Germany the walnut trees were considered to be such a
valuable possession that no young man was allowed to marry until he
owned a certain number; and if one tree was cut down, another was
always planted."

"Don't they grow in this country?" asked Malcolm.

"Not very often in our more northern States," was the reply, "for the
climate here is too cold for them; but at a house where I visited there
was an English walnut tree in the garden, and it seemed to do very well.
The nuts were always gathered while they were green, and made
into pickles."

This was considered quite dreadful, for ripe nuts were certainly a great
deal better than pickles.

"But there was a great deal of uncertainty about having the ripe nuts,
for there were bad boys all around who would not have hesitated to rob
the tree. Besides, pickled walnuts are considered a great delicacy by
those who eat such things. There are some other ways, too, of using the
nuts, which you would not like any better. One of these is to make them
into oil, as the people do in the South of Europe; this oil is used to
burn in their lamps and as an article of food. 'In Piedmont, among the
light-hearted peasantry, cracking the walnuts and taking them from the
shell is a holiday proceeding. The peasants, with their wives and
children, assemble in the evening, after their day's work is over, in
the kitchen of some château where the walnuts have been gathered, and
where their services are required. They sit round a table, and at each
end is a man with a small mallet, who cracks the walnuts and passes them
on; the rest of the party take them out of their shells. At supper-time
the table is cleared, and a repast of dried fruit, vegetables and wine
is set out. The remainder of the evening is spent in singing and
dancing. The crushing and pressing of the nuts, for oil, take place
when the whole harvest is in.'"

"But don't walnuts come from California? Our grocer said he had
California nuts," remarked Malcolm.

"Yes; that wonderful country is beginning to supply us with English
walnuts."

"Are you going to tell us a story, Miss Harson?" asked Edith, hopefully.

"I have no story, dear," was the reply, "but there is something here
which you may like about birds stealing the nuts."

Of course they would like this; for if there was to be no story, birds
and stealing promised to furnish a good substitute.

"'Birds are as fond of walnuts as we are,'" read Miss Harson, "'and rob
the trees without any mercy. Not only the little titmouse, but the grave
and solemn rook'--a kind of crow, you remember--'is not above paying a
visit to the walnut tree and stealing all he can find. There is a walnut
tree growing in a garden the owner of which may be said to have planted
it for the benefit of the rooks. Not that he had any such purpose, but,
as it happens, he cannot help himself. The rooks begin a series of
robberies as soon as the fruit is ripe, and carry them on with an
adroitness that would be amusing but for the result. As many as fifty
rooks come, one after the other, and each will carry off a walnut. The
old ones are the most at home in the process, and the most daring. The
bird approaches the tree and floats for a second in the air, as if
occupied in finding out which of the walnuts will be the easiest to
obtain; then, with a bold stroke, he darts at the one selected, and
rarely misses his aim.

"'The young rooks are much more timid and not so successful. They settle
on the branch and knock down a great many walnuts in their clumsy
attempts to secure one. Even when the walnut has been obtained, the
young rook is not sure of his prize: one of his older and stronger
brethren is very likely to attack him and knock the walnut out of his
bill. Then, by a dextrous swoop, the robber catches it up before it
reaches the ground, and carries it off in triumph. The feasting ground
of the rooks is the next field, and here they come to eat their walnuts.
They crack the shell with their beaks and devour the kernel with great
relish. Then, when one walnut is finished, they fly back to the tree for
another. There is no chance for the owner of the garden, who does not
think it worth while even to shake his tree: he knows there will not be
a single walnut left.'"

"I should think not, with those greedy creatures," exclaimed Malcolm.
"Why doesn't the man shoot 'em?"

"He probably thinks it would be of little use, when there are such
numbers of the birds; besides, he may prefer losing his walnuts to
disturbing them, for rooks are treated with great consideration in
England, and there is no such wholesale destruction of birds as is
seen here."

The rooks were certainly very comical, and the children thought this
little account of their antics over the walnut tree the next best thing
to a story.

"Another fine shade-tree," continued Miss Harson, "and one very much
like the black walnut, is the butternut, or oil-nut, tree. It is low
and broad-headed, spreading into several large branches; the leaves are
pinnate, like those of the walnut, but have not so many leaflets. The
nut has an entirely different taste, and is even more oily. To many
persons it is not at all agreeable. It is a great favorite, though, with
country-boys, and in October, when the kernel is ripe, they may be seen
with deeply-stained hands and faces, as the thin, leathery husks when
handled leave plentiful traces. The butternut is not round like the
walnut, but oblong, and pointed at the end; it is about two inches in
length and marked by deep furrows and sharp irregular ridges. It is very
pretty when sawn across in slices, and looks like scroll-saw work.--We
shall have to get some, Malcolm, for you to practice on with your saw."

[Illustration: THE BUTTERNUT TREE.]

As his scroll-saw was just then the delight of Malcolm's heart, he felt
particularly interested in butternuts, and immediately mapped out in his
mind something very beautiful to be wrought with them for his governess.

"The bark and the nutshells have long been used to give a brown color to
wool, and the Shakers dye a rich purple with it. The bark of the trunk
will give a black and that of the root a fawn-colored dye, while an
inferior sugar has been made from the sap. The young half-grown nuts are
much used for pickles. Butternut-wood is exceedingly handsome, of a
pale, reddish tint, and durable when exposed to heat and moisture. It
makes beautiful fronts for drawers and excellent light, tough and
durable wooden bowls. It is also used for the panels of carriages, as
well as for posts and rails. It is a more common tree than the walnut in
our part of the country; there is a large one in front of a house a few
miles from here which I will show you on our next drive."

"I am glad of it," said Clara, "for I can remember about the trees so
much better when I have seen them. I wish we could see every one of the
trees you have told us of, Miss Harson."

"Perhaps you will some day," replied her governess, "and you will then
find that a little knowledge of them before-hand is a great help."

"Are there any more of the walnut family?" asked Malcolm.

"Yes, the hickory belongs to it; and this is a tree which is peculiar to
America. The European walnut is more like it than any other. It is
always a stately and elegant tree and very valuable for its timber.
There are several varieties, which are much alike, the principal
difference being in the nuts. You have all seen most of the trees and
gathered the nuts. They are:

"1. The shellbark, with five large leaflets, a large nut, of which the
husk is deeply grooved at the seams, and a rough, scaly trunk.

"2. The mocker-nut, with seven or nine leaflets, a hard, thick-shelled
nut, and leaflets and twigs very downy when young, and strongly odorous.

"3. The pignut, with three, five or seven narrow leaflets, small,
thin-shelled fruit and a pretty hard nut.

"4. The bitternut, with seven, nine or eleven small, narrow, serrated
leaves, small fruit with long, prominent seams, bitter and thin-shelled
nuts and very yellow buds.

"The shellbark is often called 'shagbark,' and it is the finest of the
hickories and one that is seldom mistaken for any of the others. It may
readily be distinguished by the shaggy bark of its trunk, the excellence
of its globular fruit, its leaves, which are large and have five
leaflets, and by its ovate, half-covered buds. It is a tall, slender
tree with irregular branches, and the foliage seems to lie in masses of
dense, dark green. But in October, when the nuts ripen, the leaves turn
to orange-brown, and finally to the color of a russet apple; so that
they do not add greatly to the beauty of the forest."

"But the nuts are good," said Malcolm. "Didn't we have fine times
picking 'em up?"

"We did indeed," replied Miss Harson, "and I hope we shall again."

"How long will it be before they are ripe?" asked the little girls.

"Just about five months, I think."

"Oh dear!" was the reply; "that's _so_ long to wait!"

"But you needn't wait," said their governess; "you can enjoy each season
as it comes, and all the good things that our heavenly Father sends with
it. Remember that, as you cannot expect ripe nuts in May or June,
neither can you look for strawberries and roses in October. Tents are of
very little use then, too."

"Oh!" exclaimed the children, to whom the tent was still a delightful
novelty; and they decided not to wish just yet for nutting-time to come.

"The nut, as you have so often seen, is covered with a brown husk that
is very thick and marked with four furrows, by which it separates into
as many distinct pieces, one being larger than the rest. The nuts
differ very much in size and shape, and also in hardness, but the best
kinds have thin shells and soft kernels; they are also rounder and
fuller than the poorer sorts. There is a peculiar sweetness in the taste
of this nut when in its best condition, and it is quite equal to the
European walnut. The wood of this tree is particularly valuable for
fuel, and in old times, when wood-fires were the only kind known, a good
hickory back-log was sure to be found on every hearth. It is the
heaviest of our native woods, and the wise men say that it yields, pound
for pound or cord for cord, more heat than any other, in any shape in
which it may be consumed."

"But what a pity," said Clara, "to burn up trees that bear nuts! Why
can't they take those that don't?"

"They are not so desirable for fuel," was the reply; "and when people
own trees which they are willing to turn into money, they generally
consider in what way they can get the most for them. Nuts which grow in
the woods and fields are a very uncertain crop, of which every one
seems to gather more than the owner, and it is therefore more profitable
for him to cut his trees down and sell them for their wood, which the
people in the cities and towns are so glad to get."

"What's the use," asked Malcolm, "of calling a tree such a name as
_mocker-nut_? What does it mean?"

"That is just what I have not been able to find out," replied Miss
Harson, "but it has an Indian sound, and it seems that the Indians used
to make a black dye from the bark; so we will give them the credit for
it. The name is not often used, for the tree is generally known as the
white walnut. The nut is the largest of the hickories, being often from
four to six inches around, and it is shaped somewhat like a pear. One
variety, however, is known as the square nut. The shell is very thick
and hard, but the kernel is sweet when once it is gotten out. This tree
is as stately and finely-shaped as the shagbark. It varies from the
other hickories in the number of its leaflets, which are seven or nine,
the down on its leaves and recent shoots, the hardness of the husk and
thickness of the nut, the roundness of its large covered buds, and the
strong resinous odor in leaves, buds and husks. In its general
appearance it resembles the shellbark, as well as in the fullness of its
foliage and the size of its leaves. 'White-heart hickory' is a name
often given to this species, because the wood is supposed, when young,
to be whiter than that of any of the others,"

"_Pignut_ is another beautiful name," said Malcolm, who was disposed to
be critical. "Do pigs ever eat the nuts, Miss Harson?"

"I dare say that they do when they have the chance," was the reply, "as
they delight in nuts; but that is said not to be the proper name for the
species. Some of the nuts are shaped like a fresh fig, and 'fig-nut'
seems to be the name originally intended. But there is a great variety
in the shape of the nuts, as some are nearly round and others very
irregular. They are alike, however, in having very hard, tough shells,
and the kernel is not pleasant enough to repay the trouble of getting
at it. These nuts are very apt to grow in pairs, and several bushels of
them can be gathered from one tree."

"Aren't they good to eat?" asked Clara.

"Not at all good," replied her governess, "except to those who are not
particular about what they eat; and this may be the reason for calling
them 'pignuts,'"

"_Bitternut_ doesn't sound much better," said Malcolm, again. "I wonder
what that species has to say for itself?"

"Not very much, I am afraid, for it is sometimes called the bitter
pignut, and even boys will not eat it, while squirrels refuse to feed on
it when any other nut can be found. The shell of this nut is so thin
that it can be broken in the fingers, but, as no one cares to break it,
it is safer than many a thicker shell. It is intensely bitter, and well
deserves its name. The tree, however, is handsome and the most graceful
of all the hickories; the small, slender leaves give it the look of an
ash, and the trunk is smoother than that of most large trees. In summer
the finely-cut foliage is of a bright green, and in autumn it changes
to a rich orange, which lasts after the other species have become russet
and brown."

"Is there anything more about hickory trees?" said Clara.

"Only to speak of the great value of the wood," replied Miss Harson.
"Its uses are almost endless. Great numbers of walking-sticks are made
of it, as for this purpose no other native wood equals it in beauty and
strength. It is next in value to white oak for making hoops; it makes
the best screws, the smoothest and most durable handles for chisels,
augurs, gimlets, axes, and many other common tools. As fuel, hickory is
preferred to every other wood, burning freely, making a pleasant,
brilliant fire and throwing out great heat. Charcoal made from it is
heavier than that made from any other wood, but it is not considered
more valuable than that of birch or alder. The ashes of hickories abound
in alkali, and are considered better for the purpose of making soap than
any other of the native woods, being next to those of the apple tree."

"There, Clara!" said Malcolm; "you see now why people cut down hickory
trees. The nuts are nowhere, with all these other things."

"We have finished the walnut family," said Miss Harson, "but there is a
tree that I wish to speak of here because of its long pinnate leaves,
which appear to connect it with the walnuts and hickories. This is the
ailanthus, a large tree which you have often seen in the village, and
which used to be popular as a shade-tree. It is very clean-looking, for
the only insect that will eat its leaves is the silkworm."

"Oh, Miss Harson!" exclaimed the children. "Are there real silkworms on
'em? and can we see 'em?"

"Why, do you not remember our talk about silkworms?" replied their
governess. "I am sure I told you that they would not live here in the
open air, but they do in China; and the ailanthus is a Chinese tree. It
was planted in Great Britain over a hundred years ago for the express
purpose of feeding silkworms, because a species of silkworm which was
known to be hardy and capable of forming its cocoons in the English
climate is attached to this tree and feeds upon its leaves. It was not
successful, however, for silkworms, but as a stately and ornamental tree
with tropical-looking foliage it was much admired. The ailanthus is
quite common in this country as a wayside tree. It possesses a good deal
of beauty, from the size and graceful sweep of its large compound
leaves, that retain their brightness and verdure after midsummer, when
our native trees have become dull. These leaves have nine or ten
leaflets as large as a beech-leaf."

"Isn't that the tree that smells so in summer?" asked Clara, with a
disgusted face.

"Yes; the greenish flowers have a particularly disagreeable odor, which
is very strong and penetrating, and this is probably the reason why the
tree has lost favor in so many places. But this is only during the
season of blossoming, and for several months it is a beautiful
Oriental-looking tree with every leaf perfect, while nearly all other
foliage is more or less ravaged by insects."

CHAPTER XVII.

_SOME BEAUTIFUL TREES: THE CHESTNUT AND HORSE-CHESTNUT._

The nearest trees to the tent, and standing just back of it, were two
magnificent chestnuts, now in full leaf-beauty; and Miss Harson and her
little flock stood admiring their majestic size and beautiful color.

"These are the handsomest trees yet," said Malcolm.

"I almost think so myself," replied his governess, gazing up into the
rich green depths, "and I wish you particularly to notice these
radiated--or star-like--tufts of foliage. The leaves, you see, are long,
lengthened to a tapering point, serrated--or notched like a saw--at the
edge, and of a bright and nearly pure green. Though arranged
alternately, like those of the beech, on the recent branches, they are
clustered in stars containing from five to seven leaves on the fruitful
branches that grow out from the perfected wood. Now stand off a little
and see how the foliage seems to be all in tufts, each composed of
several long, pointed leaves drooping from the centre. The aments, too,
with their light silvery-green tint, glisten beautifully on the
darker leaves."

"How high do you think these trees are, Miss Harson?" asked Clara. "It
makes me dizzy to look up to the top."

[Illustration: LEAF OF THE CHESTNUT.]

"They can be scarcely less than ninety feet," was the reply, "and they
are very fine specimens of the family; but the great chestnut which is
the only tree in the field on the left of the house is broader. It
spreads out like an apple tree, because it has abundance of room, and it
is nearly as broad as it is high."

"And aren't its chestnuts just splendid?" exclaimed Malcolm--"the
biggest we find anywhere."

[Illustration: THE CHESTNUT TREE.]

"The bark, you see," continued his governess, "is very dark-colored,
hard and rugged, with long, deep clefts. In smaller and younger trees it
is smooth. I suppose I need not tell you that the fruit is within a burr
covered with sharp, stiff bristles which are not handled with impunity.
It opens by four valves more than halfway down when ripe, and contains
the nuts, from one to three in number, in a downy cup. These green burrs
are very ornamental to the tree; and when they are ripe, the green takes
on a yellow tinge."

"You didn't say anything about the cunning little tails of the nuts,
Miss Harson," said Edith, in a disappointed tone. "I think they're the
prettiest part, and they stick up in the burr like little mice-tails."

"Well, dear," was the smiling reply, "_you_ have told us about them, and
I think you have given a very good description. That is just what they
always reminded me of when I was about your age--little mice-tails."

Edith looked pleased and shy, and she did not mind Malcolm's laughing at
her "little tails," because Miss Harson used to think the same as she
did about them.

"This beautiful tree came from Asia, and it belongs to the _Castanea_
family, the Greeks having given it that name from a town in Pontus where
they obtained it. It was transplanted into the North and West, and is
now found in most temperate regions. The wood of the chestnut is very
valuable, as it is strong, elastic and durable, and is often used as a
substitute for oak and pine. It makes very beautiful furniture."

"What kind of chestnuts," asked Clara, "are those great big ones, like
horse-chestnuts, that they have in some of the stores? Are they good
to eat?"

"Yes," replied Miss Harson; "they are particularly good, and many people
in the southern countries of Europe almost live on them. They are three
or four times larger than our nuts, these Spanish and Italian chestnuts,
and they are eaten instead of bread and potatoes by the peasantry of
Spain and Italy. The Spanish chestnut is one of the most stately of
European trees, and sometimes it is found growing in our own country,
but never in the woods. It is carefully planted and cultivated as an
ornamental tree for private grounds. And now," added the young lady, "as
we have sufficiently examined our American chestnut trees and it is
rather damp and cool to-day for tent-life, suppose we return to the
house and get better acquainted with the foreign chestnuts?"

Edith asked if there was to be a story, but she did not complain when
Miss Harson thought not, only an account of a very large tree; for the
children always felt quite sure that there would be something which they
would like to hear.

The evening was damp, and Clara said that, the schoolroom looked like a
mixture of summer and winter. The fire was both pleasant and
comfortable, but there were lilacs and tulips and hyacinths and plenty
of wild flowers in vases and baskets; the leaves were all out on the
trees by the windows, and the grass was like velvet.

"One of the largest trees in the world, if not the largest," said Miss
Harson, "is a chestnut tree on the side of Mount Etna, in Sicily, which
abounds with chestnut trees of giant proportions and remarkable beauty.
It is called 'The Chestnut Tree of a Hundred Horses,' and this title is
said to have originated in a report that a queen of Aragon once took
shelter under its branches attended by her principal nobility, all of
whom found refuge from a violent storm under the spreading boughs of the
tree. At one time it was supposed that the tree really consisted of a
clump of several united, but this is not the case; for on digging away
the earth the root was found entire, and at no great depth. Five
enormous branches rise from the trunk, the outside surface of each being
covered with bark, while on the inside is none. The verdure and the
support of the tree thus depend on the outer bark alone. The intervals
between the branches are of various extent, one of them being sufficient
to allow two carriages to drive abreast. In the middle cavity--or what
is called the hollow--of the tree a hut has been built for the use of
persons employed in collecting and preserving the fruit. They dry the
chestnuts in an oven, and then make them into various conserves for
sale. A whole caravan of men and animals were once accommodated in the
enclosure, and also a flock of sheep folded there. The age of this
prodigious tree must be very great indeed. It belongs to the tribe
which bears sweet, or edible, chestnuts, that form an agreeable article
of food. The foliage is rich, shadowy and beautiful.

"The wood of the chestnut is much used in England for hop-poles, and old
houses in London are floored or wainscoted with it. The beautiful roof
of Westminster Abbey is made of chestnut wood.

"There are magnificent forests of Spanish chestnuts in the Apennines,
and it was the favorite tree of the great painter Salvator Rosa, who
spent much time studying the beautiful play of light and shade on its
foliage. The peasants make a gala-time of gathering and preparing the
nuts. A traveler, having penetrated the extensive forest which covers
the Vallombrosan Apennines for nearly five miles, came unexpectedly upon
those festive scenes, which are not unfrequent among the chestnut-range.
It was a holiday, and a group of peasants dressed in the gay and
picturesque attire of the neighborhood of the Arno were dancing in an
open and level space covered with smooth turf and surrounded with
magnificent chestnuts, while the inmost recesses of the forest resounded
with their mirth and minstrelsy. Some beat down the chestnuts with
sticks and filled baskets with them, which they emptied from time to
time; others, stretched listlessly upon the turf, picked out the
contents of the bristling capsules in which the kernels were entrenched,
for these, when newly gathered, are sweet and nutritious; others again,
and especially young peasant-girls, pelted their companions with
the fruit."

"Like snowballing," said Malcolm; "only the prickers must have stung.
What grand times they had with their chestnuting!"

"These gay, thoughtless people," replied his governess, "almost live in
the open air and enjoy the present moment. It is not easy to tell what
they would do without these bountiful chestnut-harvests, for their
principal article of food is a thick porridge called _polenta_, which
they make from the ground nuts. In France a kind of cake is made from
the same material, and the chestnuts are prepared by drying them in
smoke. Another dish is like mashed potatoes, and large quantities are
exported in the shape of sweetmeats, made by dipping them, after
boiling, into clarified sugar and drying them."

"Miss Harson," asked Clara, "why are horse-chestnuts _called_
'horse-chestnuts '? Do horses like 'em?"

"Not usually," was the reply. "The nuts are sometimes ground and given
to horses, but, as sheep, deer and other cattle eat them in their
natural state, it would seem more reasonable to name them after some of
those animals, if that was the reason. It is likely that because they
look like chestnuts, but are much larger, they were called
'horse-chestnuts,' The tree is not in any respect a chestnut; and when
it was first planted in England, some centuries ago, it was called 'a
rare foreign tree,' and was much admired. It is supposed to have come
from India. The large nuts are like chestnuts in appearance.--Except,
Edith, that they have no 'cunning little tails.'--In the month of May
there is not a more beautiful tree to be found than the horse-chestnut,
with its large, deeply-cut leaves of a bright-green color and its long,
tapering spikes of variegated flowers, which turn upward from the dense
foliage. The tree at this time has been compared to a huge chandelier,
and the erect blossoms to so many wax lights. The bitter nuts ripen
early in the autumn and fall from the tree, but long before this the
beautiful foliage has turned rusty in our Northern States, and is no
longer ornamental. The overshadowing branches, which give such a
pleasant shade in summer, early in autumn begin to show the ravages of
the insects or the natural decay of the leaves."

"Then," said Malcolm, "it isn't a nice tree to have, and I'm glad that
there are elms here instead."

"I should like to have some of all the trees," replied Clara, "because
then we could study about them better.--Wouldn't you, Miss Harson?"

"I think so," said her governess, "if they were not undesirable to have,
as some trees are. If it were always May, I should want horse-chestnut
trees; for I think there is scarcely anything so pretty as those fresh
leaves and blossoms. The branches, too, begin low down, and that gives
the tree a generous spreading look which is very attractive in the way
of shade. In more southern States they have a longer season of beauty
than those in the North."

"Do people ever eat the horse-chestnut?" asked Edith.

"Not often, dear--it is too bitter; but an old writer who lived in the
days when it was first seen in England says that he planted it in his
orchard as a fruit tree, between his mulberry and his walnut, and that
he roasted the chestnuts and ate them. It is like the bitternut-hickory,
which even boys will not eat."

"I should think that somebody or something ought to eat it," said Clara,
thoughtfully; "it seems like such a waste."

Everyone laughed at her wise air, and she was asked if she intended to
set the example. She was not quite ready, though, to do that; and Miss
Harson continued:

"A naturalist once took from the tree a tiny flower-bud and proceeded to
dissect it. After the external covering, which consisted of seventeen
scales, he came upon the down which protects the flower. On removing
this he could perceive four branchlets surrounding the spike of flowers,
and the flowers themselves, though so minute, were as distinct as
possible, and he could not only count their number, but discern the
stamens, and even the pollen."

"Oh!" exclaimed the children; "how very curious!"

"Yes," replied their governess; "it shows how perfect and wonderful,
from the beginning, are all the works of God."

CHAPTER XVIII.

_AMONG THE PINES_.

"How good it smells here!" exclaimed Edith, with her small nose in the
air to inhale what she called "a good sniff" in the fragrant pine-woods.

Miss Harson had taken the children in the carriage to a pine-grove some
miles from Elmridge, and Thomas and the horses waited by the roadside
while the little party walked about or stood gazing up at the tall
slender trees that seemed to tower to the very skies. Thomas was not
fond of waiting, but he thought that he had the best of it in this case:
it was more cheerful to sit in the carriage and "flick" the flies from
Rex and Regina than to go poking about in the gloomy pine-woods. Yet,
notwithstanding the darkness of its interior and the sombre character of
its dense masses of evergreen foliage as seen from without--whence the
name of "black timber," which has been applied to it--the shade and
shelter it affords and the sentiment of grandeur it inspires cause it to
become allied with the most profound and agreeable sensations; and it
was something of this feeling, though they could not express it in
words, which possessed the young tree-hunters as they stood in the
pine-grove.

"It's nice to breathe here," said Clara.

"It is delicious," replied her governess, enthusiastically, her eyes
kindling as she repeated the lines:

     "'His praise, ye winds, that from four quarter blow,
     Breathe soft and loud; and wave your tops, ye pines,
     With every plant, in sign of worship. Wave!'"

"What a queer brown color--almost like red--the ground is!" said
Malcolm. "And look, Miss Harson! it's made of lots of little
sharp sticks."

"The sharp sticks are pine-needles," was the reply--"the dead
pine-leaves of last year; and when the new growth of leaves have been
put forth, they cover the ground with a smooth brown matting as
comfortable as a gravel-walk, and yet a carpet of Nature's making. 'The
foliage of the pine is so hard and durable that in summer we always find
the last year's crop lying upon the ground in a state of perfect
soundness, and under it that of the preceding year only partially
decayed.'"

"It's kind of slippery in some places," continued Malcolm, taking a
slide as he spoke. "And see those queer-looking roots sprouting out of
the ground!"

"I see the roots," said Miss Harson, "but no sprouts. That is the white
pine, the roots of which are often seen above the ground, spreading to
some distance from the trunk. Generally the roots of pine trees are
small, compared with the size of the trunks, and spread horizontally
instead of descending far into the ground. For this reason pines are
often uprooted by high winds, which break off the deciduous trees near
the ground. But I wish you particularly to notice the trunks of these
trees and tell me if you can see any difference in them."

Those particular trees had probably never been stared at so hard
before, and the three children exclaimed almost together:

"Some are rough, and some are smooth, and the rough ones have little
bunches of leaves on 'em."

"These are the pitch-pines," replied their governess. "They are the
roughest of all our forest-trees, and they have a rounder head than any
of the other American evergreens. The branches, you see, turn in various
directions and are curved downward at the ends. This tree has also the
peculiar habit of sending out little branchlets full of leaves along the
stem from the root upward, and this has a very pretty effect, like that
of some elm trees. It is the pitch-pine that produces the fragrance we
are all enjoying so much. What do you notice about the smoother trees?"

"They are very tall and big," replied Clara--"ever so much handsomer
than the rough ones."

[Illustration: THE WHITE PINE.]

"The white pine," said Miss Harson, "is one of the loftiest and most
valuable of North American trees. Its top can be seen at a great
distance, looking like a spire as it towers above the heads of the trees
around it. You see that it has widespread branches and silken-looking,
tufted foliage. The leaves are in fives and not so stiff as those of the
other pines, and you will notice that the branches are in whorls, like a
series of stages one above another. The foliage has a tasseled effect
with those long silky tufts at the ends of the branches, and the whole
outline of the tree is very pleasing."

"This isn't a pine tree, is it?" asked Malcolm, touching a small tree
with very slender branches, some of them as slight as willow-withes and
covered with grayish-red bark, while that on the main stem was
bluish gray.

[Illustration: THE LARCH.]

"It is a species of pine," was the reply, "because it belongs to the
Coniferae, or cone-producing, family; but it is not an evergreen,
although it ranks as such. This is the larch--generally called in New
England by its Indian name of _hacmatack_--and it differs from the other
pines in its crowded tufts of leaves, which, after turning to a soft
leather-color, fall, in New England, early in November. The cones, too,
are very small."

"What's the use of cones, any way?" asked Malcolm as he picked up some
very large ones under the white and pitch pines.

"Their principal use," replied his governess, "is to contain the seeds
of future trees: they are the fruit of the pine; but they have a number
of uses besides, which you shall hear about this evening."

"The little cones at Hemlock Lodge are pretty," said Edith, "and Clara
and me play with 'em. We play they're a orphan-'sylum."

[Illustration: FOLIAGE OF THE LARCH (_Larix Americana_).]

"'Clara and I,' dear," corrected Miss Harson, smiling at the
"orphan-'sylum," while Malcolm said he had never thought of that before,
and it must be what they were meant for. Edith could not quite
understand whether this was fun or earnest, but Miss Harson shook her
head at Malcolm and called him "naughty boy."

"The spruce and hemlock," continued their governess, "and many of the
other evergreens, we have at Elmridge, but I brought you here to-day for
our drive that you might examine these magnificent pine trees, and so be
better able to understand whatever we can find out about them this
evening. Thomas is probably tired of waiting by this time; so we will
leave the fragrant pine-woods for the present, and promise ourselves
some future visits."

Every green thing was now in full summer beauty, and daisies and
buttercups gemmed the fields, while the garden at Elmridge was all aglow
with blossoms, The children remembered their flower-studies of last
year, and took fresh pleasure in the woods because of them; but the
trees now seemed quite as interesting as the flowers had been.

"The trees known as evergreens," said Miss Harson, "are not so bright
and cheerful-looking as those which are deciduous, or leaf-shedding, but
they have the advantage of being clothed with foliage, although of a
sober hue, all the year round. They consist of pines, firs, junipers,
cypresses, spruces, larches, yews and hemlocks, with some foreign trees,
and form a distinct and striking natural group. 'This family has claims
to our particular attention from the importance of its products in
naval, and especially in civil and domestic, architecture, and in many
other arts, and, in some instances, in medicine. Some of the species in
this country are of more rapid growth, attain to a larger size and rise
to a loftier height than any other trees known. The white pine is much
the tallest of our native trees.'"

"How high does it grow, Miss Harson?" asked Clara.

"From one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet," was replied, "and on
the north-west coast of America one called the 'Douglas's pine' is the
loftiest tree known; it is said to measure over three hundred feet.
'From the pines are obtained the best masts and much of the most
valuable ship-timber, and in the building and finishing of houses they
are of almost indispensable utility. The bark of some of them, as the
hemlock and larch, is of great value in tanning, and from others are
obtained the various kinds of pitch, tar, turpentine, resin and
balsams,' The pines and firs have circles of branches in imperfect
whorls around the trunk, and, as one of these whorls is formed each
year, it is easy to calculate the age of young trees. In thick woods the
lower whorls of branches soon decay for want of light and air, and this
leaves a smooth trunk, which rises without a branch, like a beautiful
shaft, for a hundred feet or more.

"These trees are found everywhere except in the hot regions around the
equator. The white pine is the most common, but in the evergreen woods
of our own country it is mixed with pitch-pine and fir trees. In our
Southern States there are thin forests, called pine-barrens, through
which one can travel for miles on horseback. The white pine is easily
distinguished by its leaves being in fives, by its very long cones,
composed of loosely-arranged scales, and when young by the smoothness
and delicate light-green color of the bark. It is known throughout New
England by the name 'white pine,' which is given it on account of the
whiteness of the wood. In England it is called the Weymouth pine.

"Many very large trees are found in Maine, on the Penobscot River, but
most of the largest and most valuable timber trees have been cut down.
The lumberers, as they are called, are constantly hewing down the grand
old trees for timber, white pine being the principal timber of New
England and Canada."

"And they float it down the rivers on rafts, don't they?" said Malcolm.
"Won't you tell us about that, Miss Harson?"

"Yes," was the reply.--"But do not look so expectant, Edie; it is not a
story, dear, only a description of pine-cutting in the forests of Maine
and Canada. But I should like you to know how these great trees are
turned into timber, and you will see that, like many other necessary
things, it is neither easy nor pleasant. We do not get much without hard
work on the part of somebody: remember that. Now I will read:

"'The business of procuring trees suitable for masts of ships is
difficult and fatiguing. The pines which grew in the neighborhood of the
rivers and in the most accessible places have all been cut down. Paths
have now to be cleared with immense labor to the recesses of the forest,
in order to obtain a fresh supply. This arduous employment is called
"lumbering," and those who engage in it are "lumberers." The word
"lumber," in its general sense, applies to all kinds of timber. But
though many different trees, such as oak, ash and maple, are cut down,
yet the main business is with the pines. And when a suitable plot of
ground has been chosen for erecting a saw-mill,' to prepare the boards,
'it is called "pine-land," or a spot where the pine trees predominate.

"'A body of wood-cutters unite to form what is called a
"lumbering-party," and they are in the employ of a master-lumberman, who
pays them wages and finds them in provisions. The provisions are
obtained on credit and under promise of payment when the timber has been
cut down and sold. If the timber meets with any accident in its passage
down the river, the master-lumberman cannot make good the loss, and the
shopkeeper loses his money.

"'When the lumbering-party are ready to start, they take with them a
supply of necessaries, and also what tools they will require, and
proceed up the river to the heart of the forest. When they reach a
suitable spot where the giant trees which are to serve for masts grow
thick and dark, they get all their supplies on shore--their axes, their
cooking-utensils and the casks of molasses'--and too often of whisky or
rum, too, I am sorry to say--'that will be used lavishly. The molasses
is used instead of sugar to sweeten the great draughts of tea--made, not
from the product of China, but from the tops of the hemlock.

"'The first thing to be done is to build some kind of shelter, for they
must remain in the forest until spring, and the cold of those Northern
winters is terrible. Their cabin--for it cannot be called by any better
name--is built of logs of wood cut down on purpose and put together as
rudely as possible. It is only five feet high, and the roof is covered
with boards. There is a great blazing fire kept up day and night, for
the frost is intense, and the provisions have to be kept in a deep place
made in the ground under the cabin. The smoke of the fire goes out
through a hole in the roof, and the floor is strewn with branches of
fir, the only couch the poor hardworking lumberers have to rest upon.
When night comes, they turn into the cabin to sleep, and lie with their
feet to the fire. If a man chances to awaken, he instantly jumps up and
throws fresh logs on the fire; for it is of the utmost importance not to
let it go out. One of the men is the cook for the whole party, and his
duty is to have breakfast ready before it is light in the morning. He
prepares a meal of boiled meat and the hemlock tea sweetened with
molasses, and the rest of the party partake heartily of both, and in
some camps also of rum, under the mistaken notion that it helps them to
bear the severe toil. When breakfast is over, they divide into several
gangs. One gang cuts down the trees, another saws them in pieces, and
the third gang is occupied in conveying them, by means of oxen, to the
bank of the nearest stream, which is now frozen over.

"'It is a hard winter for the lumbermen. The snow covers the ground
until the middle of May, and the frost is often intense. But they toil
through it, felling, sawing and conveying until a quantity of trees have
been laid prostrate and made available for the market. Then, at last,
the weather changes; the snow begins to melt and the streams and rills
are set at liberty. The rivers flow briskly on and are much swollen with
the melting snow, and the men say that the freshets have come down.

"'Hard as their toil has been, the most difficult and fatiguing has yet
to be encountered. The timber is collected on the banks of the river,
and has now to be thrown into the water and made into rafts, so that it
can be floated down to the nearest market-town. The water, filled with
melting snow, is deadly cold and can scarcely be endured, but the men
are in it from morning till night constructing the rafts, which are put
together as simply as possible, and the smallest outlay made to suffice.
The rafts are of different sizes, according to the breadth of the
stream; and when all is ready, they are launched, and the convoy fairly
sets out on its voyage.

"'The great ugly masses of floating timber move slowly along under the
care of a pilot, and the lumberers ride upon the rafts, often without
shelter or protection from the weather. They guide themselves by long
and powerful poles fixed on pivots, and which act as rudders. As they
journey down the stream they sing and shout and make the utmost noise
and riot. If there comes a storm or a change of weather, the pilot
steers his convoy into some safe creek for the night, and secures it as
best he can.

"'Thus by degrees the raft reaches the place of destination,
occasionally with some loss and damage to the timber. In this case the
master-lumberer bears the loss, and is obliged to refund the expenses
incurred as best he can. At any rate, the men are now paid off, and set
out on foot for their homes.'"

Malcolm was particularly delighted with this narrative of stirring
activity, and even the little girls seemed very much interested in it.
They were so sorry for the poor lumbermen who had such dreary winters
off there in the Northern woods, and Clara wondered if they couldn't
have warm comforters and mittens.

"They probably have those things when they go into camp," said Miss
Harson, "but they are likely to find them in the way of working, and to
cast them aside.--Great ships are not built for nothing: even to get the
timber in readiness costs heavy labor, but, after all, no doubt, the men
get interested in it and enjoy its excitement. Fortunately for the many
uses to which its timber is put, the white pine grows very rapidly,
gaining from fifteen inches to three feet every year. In deep and damp
old woods it is slower of growth; it is then almost without sap-wood and
has a yellowish color like the flesh of the pumpkin. For this reason it
is called 'pumpkin-pine.' The bark of young trees of the white-pine
species is very smooth and of a reddish, bottle-green color. It is
covered in summer with a pearly gloss. On old trunks the bark is less
rough than that of any other pine. This tree has the spreading habit of
the cedar of Lebanon. In addition to its grand and picturesque
character, the white pine, says a lover of trees, may be 'regarded as a
true symbol of benevolence. Under its outspread roof numerous small
animals, nestling in the bed of dry leaves that cover the ground, find
shelter and repose. The squirrel feeds upon the kernels obtained from
its cones; the hare browses upon the trefoil'--clover--'and the spicy
foliage of the _hypericum_'--St. John's wort--'which are protected in
its shade; and the fawn reposes on its brown couch of leaves unmolested
by the outer tempest. From its green arbors the quails are often roused
in midwinter, where they feed upon the berries of the _Mitchella_ and
the spicy wintergreen. Nature, indeed, seems to have specially designed
this tree to protect her living creatures both in summer and
in winter.'"

"Hurrah for the white pine," said Malcolm, with great energy, "the grand
old _American_ tree!"

"I'm glad that the little birds and animals have such a nice home under
it in winter," said Clara.

"I'm glad too," added Edith, "but I wish we could find some and see how
they look in their soft bed. Don't they ever put their heads out the
least bit, Miss Harson?"

"Not when they suspect that there is any one around, dear, and the
little creatures are very sharp to find this out. Our heavenly Father,
you know, takes thought for sparrows and all such helpless things, and
they are fed and cared for without any thought of their own.--The white
pine," she continued, "is truly a magnificent tree, but I think we shall
find that the pitch-pine is also very useful."

"That's the rough one," said Malcolm; "I remember how it looks, with
little tufts sticking out along the trunk."

"Yes," replied his governess, "and out authority says this tree is
distinguished by its leaves being in threes--the white pine, you know,
has them in _fives_--by the rigidity and sharpness of the scales of its
cones, by the roughness of its bark, and by the denseness of the brushes
of its stiff, crowded leaves. Its usual height is from forty to fifty
feet, but it is sometimes much taller. The trunk is not only rough, but
very dark in color; and from this circumstance the species is frequently
called black pine. The wood is very hard and firm, and contains a
quantity of resin. This is much more abundant in the branches than in
the trunk, and the boards and other lumber of this wood are usually full
of pitch-knots."

"What are pitch-knots?" asked Clara.

"'When a growing branch,'" read Miss Harson, "'is broken off, the
remaining portion becomes charged with resin,' which is deposited by the
resin-bearing sap of the tree, 'forming what is called a pitch-knot,
extending sometimes to the heart. The same thing takes place through the
whole heart of a tree when, full of juice, its life is suddenly
destroyed.' 'Resin' is another name for turpentine, but is used of it
commonly when hardened into a solid form. The tar is obtained by slowly
burning splintered pine, both trunk and root, with a smothered flame,
and collecting the black liquid, which is expelled by the heat and
caught in cavities beneath the burning pile. Pitch is thickened tar, and
is used in calking ships and for like purposes."

"I am going to remember that," said Malcolm; "I could never make out
what all those different things meant."

"What are you thinking about so seriously, Clara?" asked her governess.
"If it is a puzzle, let me see if I cannot solve it for you."

"Well, Miss Harson, I was thinking of those brown leaves, or 'needles,'
in the pine-woods, and it seems strange to say that the leaves of
evergreens never fall off."

"It would not only be strange, dear, but quite untrue, to say that; for
the same leaves do not, of course, remain for ever on the tree. The
deciduous trees lose their leaves in the autumn and are entirely bare
until the next spring, but the evergreens, although they renew their
leaves, too, are never left without verdure of some sort. Late in
October you may see the yellow or brown foliage of the pines, then ready
to fall, surrounding the branches of the previous year's growth, forming
a whorl of brown fringe surmounted by a tuft of green leaves of the
present year's growth. Their leaves always turn yellow before the fall."

CHAPTER XIX.

_GIANT AND NUT PINES_.

Great was the surprise of Edith when Miss Harson gave the little sleeper
a gentle shake and told her that it was time to be up. But the birds
without the window told the same story, and the little maiden was soon
at the breakfast-table and ready for the day's duties and enjoyments,
including their "tree-talk."

"Are there any more kinds of pine trees?" asked Malcolm.

[Illustration: "AWAKE, LITTLE ONE!"]

"Yes, indeed!--more than we can take up this summer," replied Miss
Harson. "There is the Norway pine, or red pine, which in Maine and New
Hampshire is often seen in forests of white and pitch pine. It has a
tall trunk of eighty feet or so, and a smooth reddish bark. The leaves
are in twos, six or eight inches long, and form large tufts or brushes
at the end of the branchlets. The wood is strong and resembles that of
the pitch-pine, but it contains no resin. The giant pines of California
belong to a different species from any that we have been considering,
and the genus, or order, in which they have been arranged is called
_Sequoia_[19]. They are generally known, however, as the 'Big Trees.' In
one grove there are a hundred and three of them, which cover a space of
fifty acres, called 'Mammoth-Tree Grove.' One of the giants has been
felled--a task which occupied twenty-two days. It was impossible to cut
it down, in the ordinary sense of the term, and the men had to bore into
it with augers until it was at last severed in twain. Even then the
amazing bulk of the tree prevented it from falling, and it still kept
its upright position. Two more days were employed in driving wedges into
the severed part on one side, thus to compel the giant to totter and
fall. The trunk was no less than three hundred and two feet in height
and ninety-six in circumference. The stump, which was left standing,
presented such a large surface that a party of thirty couples have
danced with ease upon it and still left abundant room for lookers-on."

[19] _Sequoia gigantea_.

When the children had sufficiently exclaimed over the size of this huge
tree, their governess continued:

"It is thought that these trees must have been growing for more than two
thousand years, which would make them probably two hundred years old at
the birth of our Saviour. Does it not seem wonderful to think of? There
are other groups of giant pines scattered on the mountains and in the
forests, and some youthful giants about five hundred years old."

"I suppose they are the babies of the family," said Clara; and this idea
amused Edith very much.

"There is still another kind of pine," said Miss Harson--"the Italian,
or stone, pine. It is shaped almost exactly like an umbrella with a very
long handle. The _Pinus pinea_ bears large cones, the seed of which is
not only eatable, but considered a delicious nut. The cone is three
years in ripening; it is then about four inches long and three wide, and
has a reddish hue. Each scale of which the cone is formed is hollow at
the base and contains a seed much larger than that of any other species.
When the cone is ripe, it is gathered by the owners of the forest; and
when thoroughly dried on the roof or thrown for a few minutes into the
fire, it separates into many compartments, from each of which drops a
smooth white nut in shape like the seed of the date. The shell is very
hard, and within it is the fruit, which is much used in making
sweetmeats. The stone-pine is found also in Palestine, and is supposed
to be the cypress of the Bible. The author of _The Ride Through
Palestine_[20] speaks of passing through a fine grove of the stone-pine,
'tall and umbrella-topped,' with dry sticks rising oddly here and there
from the very tops of the trees. These sticks were covered with
birdlime, to snare the poor bird which might be tempted to set foot on
such treacherous supports; and if the cones were ripe, they would be
quite sure to do it. Here is the picture, from the book just mentioned.
Italian pine is a prettier name than stone-pine, and this is the name by
which it is known to artists, who put it into almost every picture of
Italian scenery.

     "'Much they admire that old religious tree
     With shaft above the rest upshooting free,
     And shaking, when its dark locks feel the wind,
     Its wealthy fruit with rough and massive rind.'"

[20] Presbyterian Board of Publication.

[Illustration: STONE-PINE--"FIR" _(Pinus maritima_)].

"But how queer it sounds to call fruit _wealthy_!" said Malcolm.

"It is odd," replied his governess, "only because the word is not now
used in that sense; but the fruit is wealthy both because of its
abundance and because it can be put to so many uses. Let us see what is
said of it:

"'The kernels, or seeds, from the cones of the stone-pine have always
been esteemed as a delicacy. In the old days of Rome and Greece they
were preserved in honey, and some of the larders of the ill-fated city
of Pompeii were amply stored with jars of this agreeable conserve, which
were found intact after all those years. The kernels are also sugared
over and used as _bonbons_. They enter into many dishes of Italian
cookery, but great care has to be taken not to expose them to the air.
They are usually kept in the cones until they are wanted, and will then
retain their freshness for some years. The squirrels eagerly seek after
the fruit of this pine and almost subsist upon it. They take the cone in
their paws and dash out the seeds, thus scattering many of them and
helping to propagate the tree.

"'There is a bird called the crossbill that makes its nest in the pine.
It fixes its nest in place by means of the resin of the tree and coats
it with the same material, so as to render it impervious to the rain.
The seeds from the cones form its chief food, and it extracts them with
its curious bill, the two parts of which cross each other. It grasps the
cone with its foot, after the fashion of a parrot, and digs into it with
the upper part of its bill, which is like a hook, and forces out the
seed with a jerk.'"

[Illustration: PINE-CONE (_Pinus Sylvestris_.)]

The children enjoyed this account very much, and they thought that
stone-pine nuts--which they had never seen, and perhaps never would
see--must be the most delicious nuts that ever grew.

"What nice times the birds have," said Clara, "helping themselves to all
the good things that other people can't reach!"

"They are not exactly 'people,'" replied Miss Harson, laughing; "and, in
spite of all these 'nice times,' you would not be quite willing to
change with them, I think."

No, on the whole, Clara was quite sure that she would not.

CHAPTER XX.

_MORE WINTER TREES: THE FIRS AND THE SPRUCES_.

There were some beautiful evergreens on the lawn at Elmridge, and,
although the foliage seemed dark in summer, it gave the place a very
cheerful look in winter, when other trees were quite bare, while the
birds flew in and out of them so constantly that spring seemed to have
come long before it really did arrive.

"This balsam-fir," said Miss Harson as they stood near a tall, beautiful
tree that tapered to a point, "has, you see, a straight, smooth trunk
and tapers regularly and rapidly to the top. You will notice, too, that
the leaves, which are needle-shaped and nearly flat, do not grow in
clusters, but singly, and that their color is peculiar. There are faint
white lines on the upper part and a silvery-blue tinge beneath, and
this silvery look is produced by many lines of small, shining resinous
dots. The deep-green bark, striped with gray, is full of balsam, or
resin, known as balm of Gilead or Canada balsam, and highly valued as a
cure for diseases of the lungs. The long cones are erect, or standing,
and grow thickly near the ends of the upper branches. They have round,
bluish-purple scales, and the soft color has a very pretty effect on the
tree. They ripen every year, and the lively little squirrel, as he is
called, feasts upon them, as the crossbill does on the cones of the
stone-pine. But the mischievous little animal also barks the boughs and
gnaws off the tops of the leading shoots, so that many trees are injured
and defaced by his depredations."

[Illustration: AMERICAN WHITE SPRUCE.]

"He _is_ a lively little squirrel," observed Malcolm. "How he does race!
But he doesn't gnaw our trees, does he?"

"No, I think not, for he prefers staying in the woods and fields; but
fir-woods are his especial delight. Our balsam-fir is the American
sister of the silver fir of Europe, both having bluish-green foliage
with a silvery under surface, in a single row on either side of the
branches, which curve gracefully upward at the ends. The tree has a
peculiarly light, airy appearance until it is old, when there is little
foliage except at the ends of the branches. The silver fir is one of the
tallest trees on the continent of Europe, and it is remarkable for the
beauty of its form and foliage and the value of its timber."

"I know what this tree is," said Clara, turning to an evergreen of
stately form and graceful, drooping branches that almost touched the
ground: "it's Norway spruce. Papa told me this morning."

[Illustration: THE NORWAY PINE.]

"Yes," replied her governess, "and a beautiful tree it is, like the fir
in many respects, but the bark is rougher and the cones droop. The
branches, too, are lower and more sweeping. But the fir and the spruce
are more alike than many sisters and brothers. The Scotch fir, about
which there are many interesting things to be learned, is more
rugged-looking, and the Norway spruce, which will bear studying too, is
more grand and majestic."

[Illustration: THE HEMLOCK SPRUCE.]

"I know this one, Miss Harson," said little Edith as they came to a
sweeping hemlock near the bay-window of the dining-room.

"Yes, dear," was the reply; "Hemlock Lodge has made you feel very well
acquainted with the tree after which it is named. It is one of the most
beautiful of the evergreens, with its widely-spreading branches and
their delicate, fringe-like foliage; but, although the branches are
ornamental for church and house decoration, they are very perishable,
and drop their small needles almost immediately when placed in a heated
room. And now," continued the young lady, "we have come back to warm
piazza-days again, and can have our talk in the open air."

So on the piazza they speedily established themselves, with Miss Harson
in the low, comfortable chair and her audience on the crimson cushions
that had been piled up in a corner.

"We shall find a great deal about the fir tree," said Miss Harson, "as
it is very hardy and rugged, and as common in all Northern regions as
the white birch--quite as useful, too, as we shall soon see. This rugged
species--which is generally called the Scotch fir--is not so smooth and
handsome as our balsam-fir, but it is a tree which the people who live
near the great Northern forests of Europe could not easily do without.
It belongs to the great pine family and is often called a pine, but in
the countries of Great Britain especially it is called the Scotch fir.
Although well shaped, it is not a particularly elegant-looking tree. The
branches are generally gnarled and broken, and the style of the tree is
more sturdy than graceful. The Scotch fir often grows to the height of a
hundred feet, and the bark is of a reddish tinge. 'It is one of the most
useful of the tribe, and, like the bountiful palm, confers the greatest
blessing on the inhabitants of the country where it grows. It serves the
peasants of the bleak, barren parts of Sweden and Lapland for food:
their scanty supply of meal often runs short, and they go to the pine to
eke it out. They choose the oldest and least resinous of the branches
and take out the inner bark. They first grind it in a mill, and then mix
it with their store of meal; after this it is worked into dough and made
into cakes like pancakes. The bark-bread is a valuable addition to
their slender resources, and sometimes the young shoots are used as
well as the bark. Indeed, so largely is this store of food drawn upon
that many trees have been destroyed, and in some places the forest is
actually thinned."

"They're as bad as the squirrels," said Malcolm. "But how I should hate
to eat such stuff!"

"It may not be so very bad," replied his governess. "Some people think
that only white bread is fit to eat, but I think that Kitty's brown
bread is rather liked in this family."

The children all laughed, for didn't papa declare--with _such_ a sober
face!--that they were eating him out of house and home in brown bread
alone? Kitty, too, pretended to grumble because the plump loaves
disappeared so fast, but she said to herself at the same time, "Bless
their hearts! let 'em eat: it's better than a doctor's bill."

"A great many other things besides pancakes are made from the tree,"
continued Miss Harson, "and the fresh green tops furnish very
nice carpets."

There was a faint "_Oh!_" at this, but, after all, it was not so
surprising as the cakes had been.

"They are scattered on the floors of houses as rushes used to be in old
times in England, and thus they serve as carpet and prevent the mud and
dirt that stick to the shoes of the peasants from staining the floor;
and when trodden on, the leaves give out a most agreeable
aromatic perfume."

"I'd like that part," said Clara.

[Illustration: THE BLUE SPRUCE.]

"But you cannot have one part without taking it all; almost everything,
you see, has a pleasant side.--'The peasant finds no limit to the use
of the pine. Of its bark he makes the little canoe which is to carry him
along the river; it is simple in its construction, and as light as
possible. When he comes within safe distance of one of those gushing,
foaming cataracts that he meets with in his course, he pushes his canoe
to land and carries it on his shoulders until the danger is past; then
he launches it again, and paddles merrily onward. Not a single nail is
used in his canoe: the planks are tightly secured together by a natural
cordage made of the roots of the pine. He splits them of the right
thickness, and with very little preparation they form exactly the
material he needs.'"

Malcolm evidently had some idea of making a canoe of this kind, but he
became discouraged when his governess reminded him that he could not cut
down trees, and that his father would prefer having them left standing.
It did not seem necessary to speak of any difficulties in the way of
putting the boat together.

"Another use for the fir is to light up the poor hut of the peasant. 'He
splits up the branches into laths and makes them into torches. If he
wants a light, he takes one of the laths and kindles it at the fire;
then he fixes it in a rude frame, which serves him for a candlestick.
The light is very brilliant while it lasts, but is soon spent, and he
is in darkness again. The same use is made of the pine. It is no unusual
circumstance, in the Scotch pine-woods, to come upon a tree with the
trunk scooped out from each side and carried away: the cottager has been
to fetch material for his candles. But this somewhat rough usage does
not hurt the tree, and it continues green and healthy.' In our Southern
States pine-fat with resin is called lightwood, and is used for the
same purpose."

"That's an easy way of getting candles," said Clara.

"Easy, perhaps, compared with the trouble of moulding them," replied
Miss Harson, "but I do not think we should fancy either way of
preparing them."

"Is there anything to tell about the spruce tree?" asked Malcolm.

"It is too much like the fir," replied his governess, "to have any very
distinct character; but there are species here, known as the white and
black spruce, besides the hemlock."

But the children thought that hemlock was hemlock: how did it come to
be spruce?

"Because it has the family features--leaves solitary and very short;
cones pendulous, or hanging, with the scales thin at the edge; and the
fruit ripens in a single year. The hemlock-spruce, as it is sometimes
called, is, I think, the most beautiful of the family. 'It is
distinguished from all the other pines by the softness and delicacy of
its tufted foliage, from the spruce by its slender, tapering branchlets
and the smoothness of its limbs, and from the balsam-fir by its small
terminal cones, by the irregularity of its branches and the gracefulness
of its whole appearance.' The delicate green of the young trees forms a
rich mass of verdure, and at this season each twig has on the end a tuft
of new leaves yellowish-green in color and making a beautiful contrast
to the darker hue of last year's foliage. The bark of the trunk is
reddish, and that of the smooth branches and small twigs is light gray.
The branchlets are very small, light and slender, and are set
irregularly on the sides of the small branches; so that they form a
flat surface. This arrangement renders them singularly well adapted to
the making of brooms--a use of the hemlock familiar to housekeepers in
the country towns throughout New England. The leaves, which are
extremely delicate and of a silvery whiteness on the under side, are
arranged in a row on each side of the branchlets. The slender,
thread-like stems on which they grow make them move easily with the
slightest breath of wind, and this, with the silvery hue underneath,
gives to the foliage a glittering look that is very pretty. But I think
you all can tell me when the hemlock is prettiest?"

"After a snow-storm," said Clara. "Don't we all look, almost the first
thing, at the tree by the dining-room window?"

"Yes," replied Miss Harson; "it is a beautiful sight with the snow lying
on it in masses and the dark green of the leaves peeping through. 'The
branches put forth irregularly from all parts of the trunk, and lie one
above another, each bending over at its extremities upon the surface of
those below, like the feathers upon the wings of a bird,' And soft,
downy plumes they look, with the snow resting on them and making them
more feathery than ever."

"So they are like feathers?" said Malcolm, to whom this was a new idea,
"I'll look for 'em the next time it snows; yet--" He was going to add
that he wished it would snow to-morrow; but remembering that it was only
the beginning of June, and that Miss Harson had shown them how each
season has its pleasures, he stopped just in time.

"The pretty little cones of the hemlock, which grow very thickly on the
tree, have a crimson tinge at first, and turn to a light brown. They are
found hanging on the ends of the small branches, and they fall during
the autumn and winter. This tree is a native of the coldest parts of
North America, where it is found in whole forests, and it flourishes on
granite rocks on the sides of hills exposed to the most violent storms.
The wood is firm and contains very little resin; it is much used for
building-purposes. A great quantity of tannin is obtained from the
bark; and when mixed with that of the oak, it is valuable for
preparing leather.

"We have taken the prettiest of the spruces first," continued Miss
Harson, "and now we must see what are the differences between them. 'The
two species of American spruce, the black and the white--or, as they are
more commonly called, the double and the single--are distinguished from
the fir and the hemlock in every stage of growth by the roughness of the
bark on their branches, produced by little ridges running down from the
base of each leaf, and by the disposition of the leaves, which are
arranged in spirals equally on every side of the young shoots. The
double is distinguished from the single spruce by the darker color of
the foliage--whence its name of black spruce--by the greater thickness,
in proportion to the length, of the cones, and by the looseness of its
scales, which are jagged, or toothed, on the edge.' It is a
well-proportioned tree, but stiff-looking, and the dark foliage, which
never seems to change, gives it a gloomy aspect. The leaves are closely
arranged in spiral lines. The black spruce is never a very large tree,
but the wood is light, elastic and durable, and is valuable in
shipbuilding, for making ladders and for shingles. The young shoots are
much in demand for making spruce-beer. The white spruce is more slender
and tapering, and the bark and leaves are lighter. The root is very
tough, and the Canadian Indians make threads from the fibres, with which
they sew together the birch-bark for their canoes. The wood is as
valuable as that of the black spruce."

"Does the Norway spruce come from Norway?" asked Clara.

"Yes; that is its native land, where it presents its most grand and
beautiful appearance. There it 'rivals the palm in stature, and even
attains the height of one hundred and eighty feet. Its handsome branches
spread out on every side and clothe the trunk to its base, while the
summit of the tree ends in an arrow-like point. In very old trees the
branches droop at the extremities, and not only rest upon the ground,
but actually take root in it and grow. Thus a number of young trees are
often seen clustering around the trunk of an old one.'"

"Why, that's like the banyan tree," said Malcolm.

"Only there is a difference in the manner of growth, for the branches of
the banyan are some distance from the ground and send forth rootlets
without touching it. The Norway spruce is also the great tree of the
Alps, where it seems to match the majestic scenery. The timber is
valuable for building; and when sawed into planks, it is called white
deal, while that of the Scotch fir is red deal.

"And now," said Miss Harson, "before we leave the firs, let us see what
is said about them in the Bible. They were used for shipbuilding in the
city of Tyre; for the prophet Ezekiel says, 'They have made all thy ship
boards of fir trees of Senir[21],' and it is written that 'David and all
the house of Israel played before the Lord on all manner of instruments
made of firwood[22].' The same wood was used then in building houses,
as you will find, Malcolm, by turning to the Song of Solomon, seventh
chapter, seventeenth verse."

[21] Ezek. xxvii. 5.

[22] 2 Sam. vi. 5.

"'The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir,'" read
Malcolm.

"In Kings it is said, 'So Hiram gave Solomon cedar trees and fir trees,
according to his desire[23],' and these trees were to be used for the
very house, or palace, of which the Jewish king speaks in his Song.
Evergreens are often mentioned in the Bible, and in that beautiful
Christmas chapter, the sixtieth of Isaiah, you will find the fir tree
again.--Read the thirteenth verse, Clara."

[23] I Kings v. 10.

"'The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine
tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I
will make the place of my feet glorious.'--What is 'the glory of
Lebanon,' Miss Harson?"

"The cedar of Lebanon, dear; and we will now turn our attention to that
and the other cedars."

CHAPTER XXI.

_THE CEDARS_.

"The cypress tribe," said Miss Harson, "differ from the pines, or
Coniferae, by not having their fruit in a true cone, but in a roundish
head which consists of a small number of scales, sometimes forming a
sort of berry. One of the most common of this family is the arbor vitae,
or tree of life--a tree so small as to look like a pointed shrub, and
more used for fences than for ornament. An arbor-vitae hedge, you know,
divides our flower garden from the kitchen-garden and goes all the way
down to the brook."

"I like the smell of it," said Clara. "Don't you, Miss Harson?"

[Illustration: SIBERIAN ARBOR VITAE]

"Yes," was the reply, "there is something very fresh and pleasant about
it; and when well kept, as John is sure to keep ours, it makes a
beautiful hedge. As a tree it has been known to reach forty or fifty
feet in height, with a trunk ten feet in circumference. The leaves are
arranged in four rows, in alternately opposite pairs, and seem to make
up the fan-like branchlets. These branchlets look like parts of a large
compound, flat leaf. The bark is slightly furrowed, smooth to the touch,
and very white when the tree stands exposed. The wood is reddish,
somewhat odorous, very light, soft and fine-grained. In the northern
part of the United States and in Canada it holds the first place for
durability."

"I thought the cypress was a flower," said Malcolm.

"So one kind of cypress is," replied his governess--"the blossom of an
airy-looking and beautiful creeper; but the name also belongs to a
family of trees. The white cedar, or cypress, is a very graceful tree
which generally grows in swamps. 'It is entirely free from the stiffness
of the pines, and to the spiry top of the poplar it unites the airy
lightness of the hemlock. The trunk is straight and tall, tapering very
gradually, and toward the top there are short irregular branches,
forming a small but beautiful head, above which the leading shoot waves
like a slender plume.' The leaves are very small and scale-like, with
sharp points, and grow in four rows on the ends of the branchlets,
giving them the appearance of large compound leaves. The wood is very
durable, and is used for many building-purposes. It is generally of a
faint rose-color, and always keeps its aromatic odor."

[Illustration: IRISH JUNIPER.]

"Is that what our cedar-chests are made of to keep the moths from our
winter clothes?" asked Clara.

"Yes," replied Miss Harson, "but the name 'cedar' is; not correct,
though it is one commonly given to this tree. The wood of the European
cypress is also used for many purposes where strength and durability are
required, for it really seems never to wear out. This tree is described
as tapering and cone-like, with upright branches growing close to the
trunk, and in its general appearance a little resembling a poplar. Its
frond-like branches are closely covered with very small sharp-pointed
leaves of a yellow-green color, smooth and shining, and they remain on
the tree five or six years. The cypress is often seen in burying-grounds
in Europe, and in Turkey it often stands at each end of a grave. The
oldest tree in Europe is thought to be an Italian cypress said to have
been planted in the year of our Saviour's birth; it is an object of
great reverence in the neighborhood. This ancient tree is a hundred and
twenty feet high and twenty-three feet around the trunk.

"The juniper--or red cedar, as it is improperly called--is not a
handsome tree, but it is a very useful one. It has a scraggy, stunted
look, and the foliage is apt to be rusty; but it will grow in rocky,
sandy places where no other tree would even try to hold up its head, and
the wood, when made into timber, lasts for a great many years. Posts for
fences are made of the juniper or red cedar, and the shipbuilder,
boatbuilder, carpenter, cabinet-maker and turner are all steady
customers for it. The 'cedar-apples' found on this tree are one phase
of the life of a very curious fungus. They are covered with a
reddish-brown bark; and when fresh, they are tough and fleshy, somewhat
like an unripe apple. When dry they become of a woody nature."

"They pucker up your mouth awfully," said Malcolm, who had made several
attempts to eat them; but, do what he would, he could not even "make
believe" they were nice.

"I have no doubt of it," was the reply, "remembering the dreadful faces
I have seen on some of our rambles. But the birds like them, as they do
everything of the kind that is not poisonous."

"Isn't it beautiful?" exclaimed the children, in delight. They were
admiring a magnificent cedar of Lebanon in one of the pictures which
Miss Harson had collected for their benefit, and it seemed no wonder
that the grand spreading tree should be called "the glory of Lebanon."

"It is indeed beautiful," replied their governess; "and think of seeing
a whole mountain covered with such trees! A traveler speaks of them as
the most solemnly impressive trees in the world, and says that their
massive trunks, clothed with a scaly texture almost like the skin of
living animals and contorted with all the irregularities of age, may
well have suggested those ideas of royal, almost divine, strength and
solidity which the sacred writers ascribe to them.--Turn to the
ninety-second psalm, Clara, and read the twelfth verse."

"'The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree; he shall grow like a
cedar in Lebanon.'"

"In the thirty-first chapter of Ezekiel," continued Miss Harson, "it is
written, 'Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair
branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his
top was among the thick boughs. The waters made him great, the deep set
him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent
out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field. Therefore his
height was exalted above all the trees of the field and his boughs were
multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of
waters, when he shot forth. All the fowls of heaven made their nests in
his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring
forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations.'"

[Illustration: CEDAR OF LEBANON.]

"Are the leaves like those of our cedar trees?" asked Malcolm, who was
studying the picture quite intently. "The tree doesn't look like 'em."

"They are somewhat like them," replied his governess, "being slender and
straight and about an inch long. They grow in tufts, and in the centre
of some of the tufts there is a small cone which is very pretty and
often brought to this country by travelers for their friends at home. In
_The Land and the Book_ there is a picture of small branches with cones,
and the author says of the cedar: 'There is a striking peculiarity in
the shape of this tree which I have not seen any notice of in books of
travel. The branches are thrown out horizontally from the parent trunk.
These again part into limbs, which preserve the same horizontal
direction, and so on down to the minutest twigs; and even the
arrangement of the clustered leaves has the same general tendency. Climb
into one, and you are delighted with a succession of verdant floors
spread around the trunk and gradually narrowing as you ascend. The
beautiful cones seem to stand upon or rise out of this green flooring.'
The same writer says that by examining the different growths of wood
inside the trunk of one of the trees these ancient cedars of Lebanon
have been proved to be three thousand five hundred years old."

"Oh, Miss Harson!" exclaimed her audience; "could any tree be as old as
that?"

"It is possible. The circle of growing wood which is made each year is a
pretty good method of telling the age of a tree, and these cedars of
Lebanon are considered the oldest trees in the world. Travelers have
always spoken of the beauty and symmetry of these trees, with their
widespreading branches and cone-like tops. All through the Middle Ages a
visit to the cedars of Lebanon was regarded by many persons in the light
of a pilgrimage. Some of the trees were thought to have been planted by
King Solomon himself, and were looked upon as sacred relics. Indeed, the
visitors took away so many pieces from the bark that it was feared the
trees would be destroyed. The cedars stand in a valley a considerable
way up the mountain, where the snow renders it inaccessible for part of
the year."

"Are the trees just in one particular place, then?" asked Malcolm. "I
thought they grew all over that country?"

"The principal and best-known grove of very large and ancient cedars of
Lebanon is found in one place," replied his governess, "but there are
other groves now known to exist. The famous grove was fast disappearing,
until there were but few of them left. The pilgrims who went to visit
them in such numbers in olden times were accompanied by monks from a
monastery about four miles below, who would beseech them not to injure a
single leaf. But the greatest care could not preserve the trees. Some of
them have been struck down by lightning, some broken by enormous loads
of snow, and others torn to fragments by tempests. Some have even been
cut down with axes like any common tree. But better care is now taken of
them; so that we may hope that the grove will live and increase."

"But why weren't they saved," asked Clara, "when people thought so much
of them?"

"It seems to be a part of the general desolation of the land of God's
chosen but rebellious people. In the third chapter of the prophet
Isaiah, verses eleven and twelve, it is said, 'For the day of the Lord
of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every
one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low; and upon all the
cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of
Bashan.' The same prophet says, in the tenth chapter and nineteenth
verse, 'And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a
child may write them.' These words have been particularly applied to the
stately cedars of Lebanon, for 'the once magnificent grove is but a
speck on the mountain-side. Many persons have taken it in the distance
for a wood of fir trees, but on approaching nearer and taking a closer
view the cedars resume somewhat of their ancient majesty. The space they
cover is not more than half a mile, but, once amidst them, the beautiful
fan-like branches overhead, the exquisite green of the younger trees and
the colossal size of the older ones fill the mind with interest and
admiration. Within the grove all is hushed as in a land of the past.
Where once the Tyrian workman plied his axe and the sound of many
voices came upon the ear, there are now the silence and solitude of
desertion and decay.'--Malcolm," added his governess, "you may read us
what is written in the sixth verse of the fourteenth chapter of Hosea."

"'His branches,'" read Malcolm, "'shall spread, and his beauty shall be
as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.' What does that mean,
Miss Harson?"

"It means the fragrant resin which exudes from both the trunk and the
cones of the beautiful cedar. It is soft, and its fragrance is like that
of the balsam of Mecca. 'Everything about this tree has a strong
balsamic odor, and hence the whole grove is so pleasant and fragrant
that it is delightful to walk in it. The wood is peculiarly adapted for
building, because it is not subject to decay, nor is it eaten of worms.
It was much used for rafters and for boards with which to cover houses
and form the floors and ceilings of rooms. It was of a red color,
beautiful, solid and free from knots. The palace of Persepolis, the
temple of Jerusalem and Solomon's palace were all in this way built with
cedar, and the house of the forest of Lebanon was perhaps so called from
the quantity of this wood used in its construction.' We are told in
First Kings that Solomon 'built also the house of the forest of
Lebanon[24],' and that 'he made three hundred shields of beaten gold'
and 'put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon[25].' All the
drinking-vessels, too, of this wonderful palace, which is always spoken
of as 'the house of the forest of Lebanon,' were of pure gold, and its
magnificence shows how highly the beautiful cedar-wood was valued."

[24] I Kings vii. 2.

[25] I Kings x. 17.

CHAPTER XXII.

_THE PALMS_.

"There is a wonderful evergreen," said Miss Harson, "which grows in
tropical countries, and also in some sub-tropical countries, such as the
Holy Land, and is said to have nearly as many uses as there are days in
a year. You must tell me what it is when you have seen the picture."

[Illustration: PALM TREE.]

Malcolm and Clara both pronounced it a palm tree, and Clara asked if
there were any such trees growing in this country.

"Some of its relations are found on our Southern seacoast," replied
their governess; "South Carolina, you know, is called 'the Palmetto
State.' There is a member of the family called the cabbage-palmetto,
the unexpanded leaves of which are used as a table vegetable, which you
may see in Florida. Its young leaves are all in a mass at the top, and
when boiled make a dish something like cabbage. The leaves of the
palmetto are also used, when perfect, in the manufacture of hats,
baskets and mats, and for many other purposes. But its stately and
majestic cousin, the date-palm of the East, with its tall, slender stalk
and magnificent crown of feathery leaves, has had its praises sung in
every age and clime. 'Besides its great importance as a fruit-producer,
it has a special beauty of its own when the clusters of dates are
hanging in golden ripeness under its coronal of dark-green leaves. Its
well-known fruit affords sustenance to the dwellers on the borders of
the great African desert; it is as necessary to them as is the camel,
and in many cases they may be said to owe their existence to it alone.
The tree rears its column-like stem to the height of ninety feet, and
its crown consists of fifty leaves about twelve feet in length and
fringed at the edges like a feather. Between the leaf and the stem there
issue several horny spathes, or sheaths, out of which spring clusters of
panicles that bear small white flowers,' These flowers are followed by
the dates, which grow in a dense bunch that hangs down several feet."

"But how do people manage to climb such a tree as that," asked Malcolm,
"to get the dates? It goes straight up in the air without any branches,
and looks as if it would snap in two if any one tried it."

"It does not snap, though, for it is very strong; and the climbing is
easier than you imagine, even when the tree is a hundred feet high, as
it sometimes is. The trunk, you see, is full of rugged knots. These
projections are the remains of decayed leaves which have dropped off
when their work was done. As the older leaves decay the stalk advances
in height. It has not true wood, like most trees, but the stem has
bundles of fibres that are closely pressed together on the outer part.
Toward the root these are so entwined that they become as hard as iron
and are very difficult to cut. The tree grows very slowly, but it lives
for centuries. I have a Persian fable in rhyme for you, called

     "'THE GOURD AND THE PALM.

     "'"How old art thou?" said the garrulous gourd
     As o'er the palm tree's crest it poured
     Its spreading leaves and tendrils fine,
     And hung a-bloom in the morning shine.
     "A hundred years," the palm tree sighed.--
     "And I," the saucy gourd replied,
     "Am at the most a hundred hours,
     And overtop thee in the bowers."

     "'Through all the palm tree's leaves there went
     A tremor as of self-content.
     "I live my life," it whispering said,
     "See what I see, and count the dead;
     And every year of all I've known
     A gourd above my head has grown
     And made a boast like thine to-day,
     Yet here I stand; but where are they?"'"

The children were very much pleased with the fable, and they began to
feel quite an affection for the venerable and useful palm tree.

"The date tree," continued their governess, "as this species of palm is
often called, blossoms in April, and the fruit ripens in October. Each
tree produces from ten to twelve bunches, and the usual weight of a
bunch is about fifteen pounds. It is esteemed a crime to fell a date
tree or to supply an axe intended for that purpose, even though the tree
may belong to an enemy. The date-harvest is expected with as much
anxiety by the Arab in the oasis as the gathering in of the wheat and
corn in temperate regions. If it were to fail, the Arabs would be in
danger of famine. The blessings of the date-palm are without limit to
the Arab. Its leaves give a refreshing shade in a region where the beams
of the sun are almost insupportable; men, and also camels, feed upon the
fruit; the wood of the tree is used for fuel and for building the native
huts; and ropes, mats, baskets, beds, and all kinds of articles, are
manufactured from the fibres of the leaves. The Arab cannot imagine how
a nation can exist without date-palms, and he may well regard it as the
greatest injury that he can inflict upon his enemy to cut down
his trees."

"Miss Harson," asked Edith, very earnestly, "isn't the palm tree in the
Bible?"

[Illustration: DATE-PALM AT JERICHO.]

"It certainly is, dear," replied her governess, "and it is one of the
trees most frequently mentioned. In Deuteronomy, thirty-fourth chapter,
third verse, Jericho is called the 'city of palm trees.' Travelers still
speak of these trees as yet growing in Palestine, but they are not
nearly so abundant as they once were; near Jericho only one or two can
be found. There are many allusions to the palm in the Scriptures. King
David, in the ninety-second psalm, says that the righteous shall
flourish like the palm tree: 'Those that be planted in the house of the
Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall bring forth
fruit in old age.' The palm is always upright, in spite of rain or wind.
'There it stands, looking calmly down upon the world below, and
patiently yielding its large clusters of golden fruit from generation to
generation. It brings forth fruit in old age.' The allusion to being
planted in the house of the Lord is probably drawn from the custom of
planting beautiful and long-lived trees in the courts of temples and
palaces. Solomon covered all the walls of the holy of holies round
about with golden palm trees.--You will find this, Clara, in
First Kings."

Clara read:

"'And he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved
figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, within and
without[26].'"

[26] I Kings vi. 29.

"In the thirty-second verse," continued Miss Harson, "it is written that
he overlaid them with gold, 'and spread gold upon the cherubim, and upon
the palm trees.' 'They were thus planted, as it were, within the very
house of the Lord; and their presence there was not only ornamental, but
appropriate and highly suggestive--the very best emblem not only of
patience in well-doing, but of the rewards of the righteous, a fat and
flourishing old age, a peaceful end, a glorious immortality.'"

"What does a 'palmer' mean, Miss Harson?" asked Malcolm. "Is it a man
who has palm trees or who sells dates? I saw the word in a book I was
reading, but I couldn't understand what it meant."

"In olden times," replied his governess, "when people made so many
pilgrimages, some of the pilgrims went to the Holy Land and some to Rome
and other places; but those who went to Palestine were thought to be the
most devout, both because it was so much farther off and because there
were so many sacred spots to visit there. These pilgrims always brought
home with them branches of palm, to show that they had really been to
the land where the tree grew; and so they were called _palmers_. To say
that such-a-one was a palmer was far more than to say that he was
a pilgrim."

"Miss Harson," said Clara, holding up one of the books, "here is a
picture called 'the cocoanut-palm,' but I didn't know that cocoanuts
grew on palm trees. Will you tell us something about it?"

[Illustration: COCOANUT-PALM TREES IN SOUTH-EASTERN AFRICA.]

"Certainly I will, dear," was the reply. "I fully intended to do so, for
the cocoanut-palm is too valuable a member of the family to be passed
over. This species does not grow in Palestine, and it is not one of the
trees of the Bible; its home is in the warmest countries, and it grows
most luxuriantly in the islands of the tropics or near the seacoast on
the main-lands. Although its general form is similar to that of the
date-palm, the foliage and fruit are quite different. The leaves are
very much broader, and they have not the light, airy look of the foliage
of the date-palm. But 'the cocoanut-palm is the most valuable of
Nature's gifts to the inhabitants of those parts of the tropics where it
grows, and its hundred uses, as they are not inaptly called, extend
beyond the tropics over the civilized world. The beautiful islands of
the southern seas are fringed with cocoanut-palms that encircle them as
with a green and feathery belt. The ripe nuts drop into the sea, but,
protected by their husks, they float away until the tide washes them on
to the shore of some neighboring island, where they can take root
and grow.'"

"Wouldn't it be nice," said Edith, "if some would float here?"

"A great many cocoanuts float here in ships," replied Miss Harson, "but
they would not take root and grow, because the climate is not suited to
them; it is too cold for them. We cannot have tropical fruit without
tropical heat, and I am sure that none of us would want such a change as
that. You may sometimes see small cocoanut trees in hothouses or
horticultural gardens, where they are shielded from our cold air. The
island of Ceylon, in the East Indies, is full of cocoanut-palm trees,
for they are carefully cultivated by the inhabitants, and the feathery
groves stretch mile after mile. The tree shoots up a column-like stem to
the height of a hundred feet, and is crowned with a tuft of broad leaves
about twelve feet long. The flowers are yellowish white and grow in
clusters, and the seed ripens into a hard nut which in its fibrous husk
is about the size of an infant's head."

"I've seen the nut in its husk," said Malcolm, "when papa took me down
to the wharf where the ships come in. There were lots of cocoanuts, and
some of 'em had their coats on."

"This brown husk," continued his governess, "is a valuable part of the
nut, for the toughest ropes and cables are made of its fibres, as well
as the useful brown matting so generally used to cover offices and
passages. Brushes, nets and other domestic articles are also
manufactured from the husk. Scarcely any other tree in the world is so
useful to man or contributes so much to his comfort as the
cocoanut-palm. Food and drink are alike obtained from it. The kernel of
the nut is an article of diet, and can be prepared in many ways. The
native is almost sustained by it, and in Ceylon it forms a part of
nearly every dish. The spathe that encloses the yet-unopened flowers is
made to yield a favorite beverage called palm-wine, or, more familiarly,
'toddy.' When the fresh juice is used, it is an innocent and refreshing
drink; but when left to ferment, it intoxicates, and is the one evil
result from the bountiful gifts of the tree. Oil is prepared in great
quantities from the nuts and used for various purposes."

"Are there any more kinds of palm trees?" asked the children.

"Yes," was the reply; "there are a great many members of this most
useful family, but the one that will interest you most, after the
date-and cocoanut-palm, is, I think, the sago-palm."

[Illustration: YOUNG COCOANUT TREE IN POT (_Cocos nucifera_).]

"Why, Miss Harson!" exclaimed Clara, in surprise; "does sago really grow
on a tree?"

"It really grows _in_ a tree--for it is a kind of starch secreted by the
tree for the use of its flowers and fruit--and in order to obtain it the
tree has to be cut down. The pith is then taken out and cut in slices,
soaked in water and roasted; and when it assumes the shape of the small
globules in which we see it, it is ready for exportation."

"Well!" said Malcolm; "I never knew _that_ before. We've learned ever so
many things, Miss Harson."

"There is one thing about the palm," said Miss Harson, "which I have
purposely left for the last--especially as it is the last also of our
trees for the present--and that is the sacred associations which its
branches have for both Jews and Christians. The Jews were commanded on
the first day of the feast of tabernacles to 'take the boughs of goodly
trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and
willows of the brook, to rejoice before the Lord their God.' The palm
was a symbol of victory, and branches of it were strewn in the path of
conquerors, more especially of those who had fought for religious truth.
It is the emblem of the martyr, as a conqueror through Christ. The
Sunday before Easter is called Palm Sunday because in the ancient
churches leaves of palm were carried that day by worshipers in memory of
those strewn in the way on the triumphal entry of the King of Zion into
Jerusalem. You will find it, Malcolm, in John."

Malcolm read very reverently:

"'On the next day, much people that were come to the feast, when they
heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees,
and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna; Blessed is the King of
Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord[27].'"

[27] John xii. 12, 13.

"Here," said Miss Harson, "is a little hymn written on these very
verses:

     "'See a small procession slowly
       Toward the temple wind its way;
     In the midst rides, meek and lowly,
       One whom angel-hosts obey.

     "'How the shouting crowd adore him,
       Now, for once, they know their King;
     Some their garments cast before him,
       Green palm-branches others bring.

     "'Calmly, yet with holy sorrow,
       Christ permits the sacrifice.
     Knowing well that on the morrow
       Changed will be those fickle cries.

     "'Children, when in prayers and praises
       Loudly we with lips adore,
     While the heart no anthem raises,
       Are not we like those of yore?

     "'O Lord Jesus, let us never
       Lift the voice in heartless songs;
     Help us to remember ever
       All that to thy name belongs.'"