n the people may feast upon the fruit as much as they
like. A person, it is said, once traveled from Florence to Geneva and
ate nothing by the way but walnuts; but I must say that I should not
like to do it. One species bears a nut as large as an egg; but if kept
any time, it will shrink to half its natural size. The shell of this
great walnut, we are told, is sometimes used for making little
ornamental boxes to hold gloves and small fancy-articles; so you see
that mine was not the only glove-bag made of two walnut-shells."

"How pretty they must be!" said Clara. "I should like to see one."

"I think that I can make one when I get a large nut, and I shall be glad
to show you how it is done."

This was a delightful prospect, and the children volunteered to save for
that especial purpose all the large nuts they could find.

"The English walnut tree," continued Miss Harson, "is a native of
Persia or the North of China, and the long pinnated leaves seem to mark
its Oriental origin; but it has taken very kindly to its European home.
In some parts of Germany the walnut trees were considered to be such a
valuable possession that no young man was allowed to marry until he
owned a certain number; and if one tree was cut down, another was
always planted."

"Don't they grow in this country?" asked Malcolm.

"Not very often in our more northern States," was the reply, "for the
climate here is too cold for them; but at a house where I visited there
was an English walnut tree in the garden, and it seemed to do very well.
The nuts were always gathered while they were green, and made
into pickles."

This was considered quite dreadful, for ripe nuts were certainly a great
deal better than pickles.

"But there was a great deal of uncertainty about having the ripe nuts,
for there were bad boys all around who would not have hesitated to rob
the tree. Besides, pickled walnuts are considered a great delicacy by
those who eat such things. There are some other ways, too, of using the
nuts, which you would not like any better. One of these is to make them
into oil, as the people do in the South of Europe; this oil is used to
burn in their lamps and as an article of food. 'In Piedmont, among the
light-hearted peasantry, cracking the walnuts and taking them from the
shell is a holiday proceeding. The peasants, with their wives and
children, assemble in the evening, after their day's work is over, in
the kitchen of some chateau where the