m the branches of tall ash trees while their mothers
were working in the harvest-field below. Even now serpents are said to
dislike the tree so much that they will not come near it, and the leaf
is considered a cure for the bite of a poisonous snake. I have been told
that an ash-leaf rubbed on a mosquito-bite will at once take out the
sting and itching, and no better remedy can be found for the sting of a
bee or a wasp."

"It's ever so much nicer than mud," said Clara, who had rather a talent
for getting into hornets' nests.

"But the mud, you see, is always to be had," replied Miss Harson, "while
ash-leaves do not grow everywhere; and I do not know that they have any
power to cure the sting.

"The other species of ash found in this country are not so important as
the white, but the black ash is remarkable as the slenderest deciduous
tree of its height to be found in the forest. It is often seventy or
eighty feet tall, with a trunk not more than a foot around. The color of
the trunk is a dark granite-gray and the bark is rough. The wood is
remarkable for its toughness, and for making baskets the Indians prefer
it to any other, except the trunk of a young white oak.

"The red ash is very much like the white, but the wood is less valuable.
It is a spreading, broad-headed tree, and the trunk is erect and
branching. It is not so tall as the black ash, yet its trunk is three
times as thick.

"A species of ash grows in Sicily that yields a substance called _manna_
which used to be valuable as a medicine, and this manna is obtained in
the same way as maple-sap--by making holes or incisions in the bark of
the tree. At the proper season the persons whose business it is to
collect manna begin to make incisions, one after the other, up the stem.
The manna flows out like clear water, but it soon congeals and becomes
a solid substance. It has a sweet taste, and while in a liquid state
runs into a leaf of the tree that has been inserted in the wound.
Afterward it flows into a vessel placed below, from which it is carried
away and shipped off to other countries."

"Is there any story about the ash?" asked Malcolm.

"Not much of a story, dear," was the reply--"only a little legend of the
manna trees; but, such as it is, you shall have it:

"The king of Naples, it is said, fenced a number of trees round and
forbade any to collect the store they yielded unless they paid a
tribute. By this means the royal revenue would be largely