feasting ground
of the rooks is the next field, and here they come to eat their walnuts.
They crack the shell with their beaks and devour the kernel with great
relish. Then, when one walnut is finished, they fly back to the tree for
another. There is no chance for the owner of the garden, who does not
think it worth while even to shake his tree: he knows there will not be
a single walnut left.'"

"I should think not, with those greedy creatures," exclaimed Malcolm.
"Why doesn't the man shoot 'em?"

"He probably thinks it would be of little use, when there are such
numbers of the birds; besides, he may prefer losing his walnuts to
disturbing them, for rooks are treated with great consideration in
England, and there is no such wholesale destruction of birds as is
seen here."

The rooks were certainly very comical, and the children thought this
little account of their antics over the walnut tree the next best thing
to a story.

"Another fine shade-tree," continued Miss Harson, "and one very much
like the black walnut, is the butternut, or oil-nut, tree. It is low
and broad-headed, spreading into several large branches; the leaves are
pinnate, like those of the walnut, but have not so many leaflets. The
nut has an entirely different taste, and is even more oily. To many
persons it is not at all agreeable. It is a great favorite, though, with
country-boys, and in October, when the kernel is ripe, they may be seen
with deeply-stained hands and faces, as the thin, leathery husks when
handled leave plentiful traces. The butternut is not round like the
walnut, but oblong, and pointed at the end; it is about two inches in
length and marked by deep furrows and sharp irregular ridges. It is very
pretty when sawn across in slices, and looks like scroll-saw work.--We
shall have to get some, Malcolm, for you to practice on with your saw."

[Illustration: THE BUTTERNUT TREE.]

As his scroll-saw was just then the delight of Malcolm's heart, he felt
particularly interested in butternuts, and immediately mapped out in his
mind something very beautiful to be wrought with them for his governess.

"The bark and the nutshells have long been used to give a brown color to
wool, and the Shakers dye a rich purple with it. The bark of the trunk
will give a black and that of the root a fawn-colored dye, while an
inferior sugar has been made from the sap. The young half-grown nuts are
much used for pickles. Butternut-wood is exceedingly han