beneath them. In addition to these interesting facts people discovered
that if a single twig was broken from the mulberry tree several new
shoots would branch out in its place. This was surely a valuable thing
to know. Moreover, they learned that the leaves of the white mulberry
were the most tender; that those of the red ranked next; and that the
black came last in delicacy. Few French or Italian people used the
black, but in the colder countries, where it flourished better than did
other kinds, it was used almost entirely. Another delightful discovery
of the sericulturists, as silkworm raisers are called, was that when
their mulberry trees were once properly planted they would, with good
care, live to a marvelous old age--some of them even reaching the
dignity of two or three hundred years. But unless snails and other
destructive grubs were kept away the trees would not thrive. The finer
and more carefully grafted they were the greater the damage resulting
from hungry insects. In contrast the wild mulberry with its acid and
bitter sap presented far less temptation and therefore lived longer than
did the cultivated species.

This and many another lesson did the father of Marie and Pierre have to
learn before he could successfully raise mulberry trees--to say nothing
of silkworms. He must know how to prepare the mulberry seeds by crushing
the fruit, covering the pulp with water, and separating the seeds from
the waste part of the berry. He must know, too, how to spread the seeds
upon cloth and lay them in the sun to dry, after which they were put
away in covered jars, secure from air and moisture, and stored in some
dark place until needed for planting.

To Marie and Pierre, brought up amid the environment of many a mulberry
grove, these facts were an old story, and how fortunate it was that this
was so. Now that their father and Uncle Jacques had gone to the war most
of the care of the silkworms would fall to them. There was, to be sure,
Josef the old gardener--he could give advice; but he was too old and
crippled to do much work.

And therefore it was the two children, together with their mother, who
were planning for their first harvest of cocoons, and were eagerly
awaiting the unfurling of the mulberry leaves before beginning to hatch
out their crop of silkworm eggs. How anxiously they had watched the
trees! How eagerly scanned the swelling buds! Ah, it could not be long
now. Was not the river a torrent from the