and the leaves are almond-shaped, only more
pointed. On the top of the plant and its larger boughs grow bunches of
red berries in the shape of grape bunches; and the leaves and berries
are of such a deep, rich crimson in the late autumn that they sometimes
make the slopes of the hills appear as if they were on fire. If any
little girl would like to dress the vases on the parlor mantelpiece
prettily, she could not do better than collect a handful of these
delicate tendrils with their scarlet leaves, and use them as a
background to the lovely little autumn flowers--late primroses,
stars-of-Bethlehem, wild honeysuckles, and fringed ferns--which grow in
the woods and fields at this time of the year.

But the honest country people who take so much pains about collecting
sumac are not thinking about dressing vases with it. They gather it to
sell, and are paid from one cent to a cent and a half a pound for it at
the sumac mills. This may not seem much, but then the ocean is made up
of drops, and with poor people a little money goes a long way. As little
children can pull sumac just as well as grown people, a whole family may
gather in a day several dollars' worth.

It is used for dyeing, and is said to be better for that purpose than
anything else to color fair leather and certain other fabrics. Great
quantities of it are employed in printing calicoes in rich patterns, and
the dresses worn by ladies and girls often owe their bright colors to
the leaves of the sumac. The way in which it is collected and prepared
for use is very simple. As soon as the leaves turn red, which is toward
the end of summer, the sumac hunters begin their work. They scatter
through the fields, or along the sides of the mountain, and break off
the twigs on which the leaves are growing; for these twigs do not make
the leaves less valuable. Then, when they have collected an armful, they
put it in a pile or into bags, and as night comes on the whole is taken
to one spot, from which it is hauled home in wagons. Here it is laid on
the floor of the barn or any out-house, in the shade, so that it may dry
very gradually, and keep the juices which afford the coloring matter.
When this process of drying is gone through with, and the leaves are in
a proper state, it is loaded on carts or wagons, in bags, and taken to
the sumac mills, where it is weighed, and paid for by the owner of the
mills at the rate, as I have said, of from one cent to a cent and a half
a p