winter, and has no promise of beauty until 'May hangs on these
withered boughs a green drapery that hides all their deformity; she
infuses into their foliage a perfection of verdure that no other tree
can rival, and a beauty in the forms of its leaves that renders it one
of the chief ornaments of the groves and waysides. June weaves into this
green foliage pendent clusters of flowers of mingled brown and white,
filling the air with fragrance and enticing the bee with odors as sweet
as from groves of citron and myrtle.'"

"That sounds pretty," said Clara, who liked imposing sentences, "but
brown and white are not very handsome colors for flowers."

"The white is certainly prettier without the mixture of brown," replied
her governess, "but we have to take our flowers ready-made, and can
hardly expect them to be beautiful and fragrant too. The separate
blossoms are shaped like those of the pea and bean; they hang in long
clusters somewhat resembling bunches of grapes. The leaves--or, rather,
leaflets--are very sensitive and have a habit of folding over one
another in wet and dull weather, and also in the night--a habit that is
peculiar to all the members of the acacia family, to which the
locust belongs."

"I should think it ought to belong to the pea family," said Malcolm, "if
the flowers are shaped like pea-blossoms."

"So it does," replied Miss Harson--"or, rather, to the bean family, of
which the pea is a member, on account of its blossoms; but the acacia,
like many others, is a brother, or sister, on account of its leaves as
well as its blossoms. The peculiar distinction of this family is that
its flowers are butterfly-shaped or its fruit in pods, and it often
possesses both these characters. By one or the other all the plants of
the family are known, and the butterfly-shaped flowers are of a
character not to be mistaken, as they are found in no other family. It
includes herbs, shrubs and trees--an immense and perfectly natural
family, distributed throughout almost every part of the globe. There are
at present in all not less than thirty-seven hundred species. So you see
that the locust tree is certainly rich in relations."

The children thought that it must have some family claim on almost
every plant in the world.

[Illustration: CAROB TREE AND FRUIT.]

"Do you remember that in the story of the Prodigal Son, told by our
Lord, it is said that the bad son became so poor that he wanted to eat
the 'husks' that t