ear the
Dogwood music like a lot of church bells pealing, like the chorus of the
cathedral where Woodthrush is the preacher-priest and the Veeries make
responses.

It was Adam's favourite tree, they say, in the Garden of Eden. And it
grew so high, flowered so wonderfully, and gave so much pleasure that
Diablo, who is also called the Devil, wanted to kill it. He made up his
mind that he would blight and scatter every shining leaf of its snowy
bloom. So one dark night he climbed a Honey Locust tree near the gate,
and swung by his tail over the wall, intending to tear off all the
lovely blossoms. But he got a shock when he found that every flower was
in the _shape of a cross_, which put them beyond his power to blight. He
was furious at not being able to destroy its beauty, so did the worst he
could. Keeping away from the cross he bit a piece out of the edge of
every snowy flower leaf, and then jumped back to the Honey Locust tree.

The Locust was ashamed when she found that she had helped Diablo to do
such a mean bit of mischief, so she grew a bristling necklace of strong
spikes to wear; they were so long and sharp that no one since, not even
Diablo himself, has ever been able to climb that Honey Locust tree.

But it was too late to save the Dogwood bloom. The bites were out, and
they never healed up again, as you can see to this very day.

TALE 9

The Woolly-bear

[Illustration: The Woolly-bear (the moth is 1-1/4 life size)]

Do you know the Woolly-bear Caterpillar? It is divided into three parts;
the middle one brown, the two ends black. Everyone notices the
Woolly-bear, because it comes out in early spring, as soon as the frost
is over, and crawls on the fences and sidewalks as though they belonged
to it. It does not seem to be afraid of any one or anything. It will
march across the road in front of a motor car, or crawl up the leg of
your boot. Sometimes when you brush it off with your hand, little
hairs are left sticking in your fingers, because it is really like a
small porcupine, protected by short spears sticking out of its skin in
all directions. Here at the side of the picture, is one of these hairs
seen under a microscope.

Where did the Woolly-bear come from? It was hatched from an egg last
summer.

And now what is going to happen? It will stuff itself with rib-grass or
other low plants, till it has grown bigger; then it will get a warning
from the All-mother to prepare for the great change. In so