," replied the master, "that they ought not to be
made to grow so. The nut itself, he thought, ought to hang alone on the
branches, without any prickly covering,--just as apples do."

"But the nuts themselves have no stems to be fastened by," answered the
same boy.

"That is true, but I suppose this boy thought that God could have made
them grow with stems, and that this would have been better than to have
them in burrs."

After a little pause the master said he would explain to them what the
chestnut burr was for, and wished them all to listen attentively.

"How much of the chestnut is good to eat, William?" asked he, looking at
a boy before him.

"Only the meat."

"How long does it take the meat to grow?"

"All summer I suppose, it is growing."

"Yes; it begins early in the summer and gradually swells and grows until
it has become of full size and is ripe, in the fall. Now suppose there
was a tree out here near the school-house, and the chestnut meats should
grow upon it without any shell or covering, suppose too that they should
taste like good ripe chestnuts at first, when they were very small. Do
you think they would be safe?"

William said, "No! the boys would pick and eat them before they had time
to grow."

"Well, what harm would there be in that; would it not be as well to have
the chestnuts early in the summer, as to have them in the fall?"

William hesitated. Another boy who sat next to him said,

"There would not be so much meat in the chestnuts, if they were eaten
before they had time to grow."

"Right," said the master, "but would not the boys know this, and so all
agree to let the little chestnuts stay, and not eat them while they were
small?"

William said he thought they would not. If the chestnuts were good, he
was afraid they would pick them off and eat them, if they were small.

All the rest of the boys in the school thought so too.

"Here then," said the master, "is one reason for having prickles around
the chestnuts when they are small. But then it is not necessary to have
all chestnuts guarded from boys in this way; a great many of the trees
are in the woods, which the boys do not see; what good do the burrs do
in these trees?"

The boys hesitated. Presently the boy who had the green satchel under
the tree with Roger, who was sitting in one corner of the room, said,

"I should think they would keep the squirrels from eating them."

"And besides," continued he after thinking