trip of two
miles or more through the forest. We took a lunch of bread and cheese,
and a dipper along with us, as it was doubtful whether we should return
till late in the day. The forest on the intervale between the stream and
the mountain was mainly of spruce, basswood, yellow birch and a few
firs. The balsam blisters on the leaden gray trunks of the latter were
now plump and full, and when punctured, yielded each a few drops of
balsam, as clear as crystal--the same "Canada balsam" which
microscopists make so much use for preserving their "slides" of
specimens. The French Canadians call the tree _epinette blanche_; it is
very abundant in the swamps of the eastern provinces.

The yellow birches were large trees of very solid wood, displaying
trunks shaggy with curling bark and moss. Many of the basswoods, too,
were very large; the trunks of these when old had furrowed bark not
wholly unlike sugar maples, but rather less rugged, and more regularly
grooved. The great white ash trees, too, presented similar furrowed
bark, but of lighter gray tint.

The spruces which were here most numerous, varied from a foot to two
feet in diameter, being such as are ordinarily cut for lumber throughout
Maine and Canada. These are the trees which afford the chewing gum, sold
in the larger towns and cities. Kate was not long discovering some fine
great lumps of it which studded a seam in a large spruce. "Lend me your
knife, Addison," she exclaimed. "I want to dig some gum. Come here,
girls."

Enough was dug in a few minutes to keep our whole party chewing all that
day and at intervals for many subsequent days. It is a rather bootless
kind of effort, at best, though it may tend to develop the muscles of
one's jaws.

In the course of an hour we reached the foot of the mountain, then began
climbing up the side of it, which was quite steep and rough. Boulders
of all sizes obstructed the way and we soon came to high ledges of bare
gray rock which Addison declared to be mostly of granite. Through these
rocks and ledges, however, there ran a great many veins of white quartz.
Some of these veins were narrow, only an inch, or a few inches, thick;
but others were wider and we presently found one of lovely tinted rose
quartz not less than a yard thick.

"Oh, how beautiful!" Theodora exclaimed; she and Kate sat down by it,
admiring the fine rosy tint. They wished to break off pieces to carry
home; but we had brought no sledge, or other stone m