the farmers know it as Popple, or White Poplar; but the hunters
call it Quaking Asp or Aspen.

[Illustration: The Story of the Quaking Aspen]

The name "quaking" was given because it is for ever shaking its leaves;
the slightest wind sets them all rustling. They move so easily because
each leaf-stem is like a thin, flat strap set on edge; while the
leaf-stem of such as the oak is nearly round and scarcely rustles at
all. Why does the Quaking Asp do this? No doubt, because it lives in
places where the hot dust falls thick on the leaves at times, and if it
did not have some trick of shaking it off, the leaf would be choked and
bent so that the tree could scarcely breathe; for the leaves are the
lungs of the trees. So remember, when the Poplar rustles loudly, it is
coughing to clear its lungs of the dust.

Some trees try to hide their troubles, and quickly cover up their
wounds; but the Aspen has a very touchy skin and, once it is wounded, it
shows the scar as long as it lives. We can, therefore, go to any Aspen
tree, and have it tell us the story of its life. Here is the picture of
one. The black marks at the forks (c) are scars of growth; the belts of
dots (d) were wounds given by a sapsucker to rob it of its sap; the flat
places (e) show where a Red Squirrel gnawed off the outer bark.

If a Raccoon climbed the tree (f), or an insect bored into the trunk, we
are sure to see a record of it in this sensitive bark.

Now, last of all, the paper on which this story is printed was likely
made out of Aspen wood.

TALE 41

The Witch-hazel

[Illustration: Witch-hazel]

These are the things to make you remember the Witch-hazel; its forked
twig was used--nay, still is used--as a magic rod to show where there is
running water underground; that is, where it is possible to find water
by sinking a well. Its nuts are explosive, and go off with a _snap_,
shooting the seeds that are inside, ten or twenty feet away, when the
cold dry days of autumn come. Third, its curious golden-thread flowers
appear in the fall.

As Cracked Jimmy used to sing:-

Witch-hazel blossoms in the fall,
To cure the chills and fevers all.
--_Two Little Savages._

On November 16, 1919, after a sharp frost, I went out in the morning to
get some Witch-hazel flowers for this drawing, and found them blooming
away in the cold air, vigorously as ever. Imagine a flower that can
bloom while it is freezing. In the dra