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The fruit of trees is out of easy reach, but there is another protection, it is not ready to be eaten.

until it is ripe;

before that it

is hard, bitter, and hurtful. There are other fruits of each of these kinds: some with the seeds wrapped in a

soft hull in the center of a

thick layer of flesh; some with a kernel inside a hard stone; and some, like the almond, whose kernel is the part that is good to eat.

Put all the fruits you know into classes, and try to get acquainted with the unseen spirit of life in each which takes from earth and air what it needs, and builds a form and lives a life of its own.

Do we not all agree that fruits are the best gifts of earth for her higher children to eat?

XI. WINTER LOVES THE CEDAR

SHUT your eyes and think of the cedar tree. It is a contrast to the pine. The cedar root strikes down deep into the ground; that of the pine spreads out broadly. In an open field the pine might be uprooted.

That is why the home is apt to be a forest. Cedars will grow on a hill slope or in open pastures because their roots are anchors.

The cedar trunk runs straight to the top like that of the pine, and both will sway at the top when the wind blows and the sound is like that of the sea; but the cedar is slender and tall where the pine is broad-spreading. The branches curve upward toward the trunk in a clinging way and are so close together that the wind goes around the crown of the tree as it does around a wall. The birds know this, and if wish to look for them on a stormy day it may you help you to remember it. Even snowflakes are kept mostly on the outside of the branches.

Leaves come next in the picture we are drawing. You have been taught in Book One how the

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pine-needle-shaped leaves of the pine resist the wind and storm; the cedar leaves do it in holding together as if they were braided. What seems to be a leaf is a twig with many leaves, and when the time comes for new ones to grow, those of a year old give place to them as older children should to younger.

You know cedar cones; I wonder if you also know the blossoms. Hear what Lowell wrote of them:

Red cedars blossom too, though few folks know it,
And look all dipped in sunshine like a poet.

Look for the blossoms in May. Sometimes the wind will carry away the pollen like a cloud. Not all the trees have the stamens; they have instead green blossoms that bear berries if pollen falls upon them. Robins eat the berries, and the cedar bird is so named because at one part of its life cedar berries are the chief part of its food.

If you examine one of these berries, you will find scales overlapping in the shape of a cone. This proves that the cedar and pine are cousins even if the cone scales do not grow hard and dry. Another curious thing about cedar seeds is the long time they wait in the ground before they begin to grow-sometimes till the old tree is cut down.

XII. TREE STORIES

THE poplar's legend is very old. It explains the tree's way of holding its branches.

Some one had stolen gold of his master and had hidden it among the branches at night when the poplar was asleep.

In the morning the owner came seeking his treasure among the

trees.

Sure of their innocence all the trees denied it, the poplar included.

To make their innocence quite

plain they were asked to hold up their branches. When the poplar lifted its arms the treasure fell from them, and such was its astonishment that it holds them so to this day.

Reptiles dislike the ash tree. They even avoid its shade. It has been said that they would as soon go through a fire as a barricade of ash branches.

Another superstition says that witch hazel bends to the water, and to gold. A branch of the tree is used

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to show where to find water easily and dig a well, or where to search for gold.

The linden, or basswood, is grown for its beauty on lawns. It is a good roadside tree because wounds on it heal easily.

Its story is in connection with its fruit. It likes to grow along the banks of rivers and lakes; then when the winged fruit drops off, the seed is heavy enough to sink, but it has a wing which makes a raft and floats it along until it finds some bold headland or island on which to plant itself.

It will take it fifteen or twenty years to come to its growth, but this is not a long time for a tree.

The maple has winged seeds too. It is valued for its close shade, its shapely crown, and its bright autumn colors.

The height of trees is interesting. Remember that an apple tree stops at twenty-five feet to keep its apples from getting too badly bruised when they fall. Use this twenty-five feet as a measure for other trees. The elm rises to sixty feet.