"I think I can describe one after that, and pick out a hickory from other trees," remarked Hilda.
"So c'n I who couldn't?"
retorted Jane.
"How many trees does that make?" asked Miss Miller.
"Maple, oak, chestnut and hickory," Zan counted off on her fingers.
"Four! We've got to find six more," cried Elena, pushing on to seek a new variety of tree.
"Here's one that you'll be glad to hear about," called Zan. They turned back and saw a low bush-like tree that would have been passed by without a look, if it hadn't been for the alert Zan.
"That's a bush!" sneered Nita.
"It's called a tree in botany!" retorted Zan triumphantly.
"Yes, a hazel-nut is a tree although it looks like a bush to me," explained Miss Miller.
"Is that a hazel-nut tree?" wondered Jane amazed.
"It doesn't look like much!" said Nita deprecatingly.
"Looks don't count for everything wait till you want some hazel-nuts. This is a record-breaker for nuts!" snapped Zan, defending her pet hazel-nut.
"I consider a hazel-nut a very interesting specimen to study. Its blossoms are very small and very sweet; in fact, a cluster of hazel flowers makes a lovely nose-gay. The male tree blooms in catkins and is more conspicuous. Its growth is like unto a large shrub or low tree with wood that is tough but flexible. The leaf is shaped like a roseleaf and notched on the edges. The nuts form in a bell-like cup and the meat is very sweet and good.
"The Witch-hazel, from which a fluid called 'Pond's Extract' comes, is peculiar in that it blooms in the Fall the yellow stars shining in the woods. The name originally was spelled 'wyche' meaning a box. The wood was always used for making chests that fitted in old-time halls. These chests or wyches, had no connection whatever with magic. To-day, however, the common belief is that the name is derived from the magic power of the 'Dowser' or Water-Finder. A hazel wand is accorded the quality of discovering water under the ground when held in the hands of certain people. If the holder passed over a spot where water could be found the wand would bend until its tip touched the earth where water could be found if dug for."
"Do you believe that, Miss Miller?" asked a sceptical one.
"I used to accept the statement as a fact until quite recently when I read of a renowned engineer who claims that the wand is quite unnecessary as water can be found by any one strong-minded enough to concentrate upon the discovery about to be made. This Englishman, who is an authority in such matters, says that many well-known engineers have tried and found that the wand has not the inherent power to discriminate or fathom for water. I have known folks who might experiment and carry a wand forever without its ever moving a hair's breadth in their hands, as they themselves were too material and 'thick' to discern the things under the earth or above the earth, either!"
"Let's sit down here and listen to more of this queer talk," suggested Zan eagerly.
"No, we are out for a tramp to find trees and I am not going to talk of things you are not old enough to understand," said Miss Miller positively.
"Miss Miller, here's a maple, but it's not red!" said Jane, pointing to the rounded top of a thick tree.
"That's a sap maple like the ones in the sugar grove. If it were spring we could tap the trunk and get some of the sweet saccharine that rises up in the trunk. The sugar maple grows as high as seventy feet and sometimes measures three feet in diameter. It has hard wood, of satiny lustre. It generally has a well-formed crown and thick foliage. A single maple will yield from five to ten pounds of maple sugar in season."
"Zan, for goodness' sake, let us have some sugar when you can get it!" exclaimed Elena.
"All right, remind me and we will ask Bill if there is any left from this spring's boiling," replied Zan.
"There's a Christmas tree, Miss Miller."
"Oh, help! A spider's got on me! It crawled from that bush!" cried Nita, vainly squirming and shaking herself to throw off the insect.
The other girls ran away from her for they too, were afraid of a spider.
"Pooh! It won't hurt you! Can't any of you tell the difference between a poisonous and a harmless bug?" Zan cried.
"That gives me an idea," said Miss Miller, as Zan brushed off the gaudily striped spider. "The first afternoon we have to spare from routine plans, we will take up the interesting study of insect life, and learn not to call everything a bug!"
"If we do half the things we hope to accomplish, we'll be the prize Tribe of the Indians!" commented Zan.
"We must always strive for the unattainable. Although we are not aware at the time that our goal is far beyond our capacity to attain, still it is the incentive that makes for progress. Having once obtained what we desired, we are disappointed in the realisation and
so keep on striving. Discouragement and laziness, are the two worst enemies that progress ever meet. I think that of the two discouragement is even harder to combat with than laziness. So, with our plans for the summer: we outline far more than we can actually accomplish but it is an incentive and we push onward and upward."