wing I have shown the flower, like
a 4-lipped cup with four yellow snakes coiling out of it.

But these are not the deadly snakes one hears about. They are rather
symbols of old AEsculapius, the famous healer of the long ago, whose
emblem was the cup of life with curling snakes of wisdom about it. In
the Witch-hazel has been found a soothing balm for many an ache and
pain. The Witch-hazel you buy in the drugstores, is made out of the bark
of this tree. If you chew one of the little branches you will know it by
the taste.

Near the top is a flower that is finished, its snakes have fled; and at
the top of all is a bud for next year. That is, they are--_is_,
_has-been_ and _going-to-be_. The nuts are shown in the corner.

Note, last of all, that it is a sociable little tree; it always goes
with a crowd. There are generally three or four Witch-hazels from one
root, and there is always a family of cousins not far away.

TALE 42

How the Shad Came and How the Chestnut Got Its Burrs

In the woods of Poconic there once roamed a very discontented Porcupine.
She was forever fretting. She complained that everything was wrong, till
it was perfectly scandalous, and Wahkonda, the Great Spirit, getting
tired of her grumbling, said:

"You and the world I have made don't seem to fit; one or the other must
be wrong. It is easier to change you. You don't like the trees, you are
unhappy on the ground, and think everything is upside down, therefore
I'll turn you inside out, and put you in the water." And so the
Porcupine was turned into a new creature, a fish, called the Shad. That
is why he is so full of little sharp bones.

Then after the old Porcupine had been turned into a Shad, the young ones
missed their mother, and crawled up into a high Chestnut tree to look
for her coming. Wahkonda happened to pass that way, and they all
chattered their teeth at him, thinking themselves safe. They were not
wicked, but at heart quite good, only badly brought up; oh, so
ill-trained, and some of them chattered and groaned as Wahkonda came
nearer. Then Wahkonda was sorry for them, remembering that he had taken
their mother from them, and said: "You look very well up there, you
little Porkys, so you had better stay there for always, and be part of
the Chestnut tree." And he touched each one with his magic wand and
turned it into a burr that grew tight to the tree. That is how it came
about. There they hang like a lot of little Porcupines on t