54 Musmgs by Camp- Fire and Wayside 



grass under the trees, when the snow goes off. A 

 cranberry marsh spreads a feast of mellowed and 

 sweetened fruit, the edge of its acid gone, its 

 nutritious qualities perfected, its flavor delightful, 

 for all the hungry sleepers and for the oncoming 

 fluttering clouds of birds, while yet the trees are 

 bare, and not a bud has broken in upon the winter's 

 desolation. 



Take a company of trees living socially together 

 in a forest and notice how courteously they respect 

 each other's tastes, rights, and interests. Here is 

 a pine. He sends his tap-roots straight down, ten 

 feet or more, to make sure of a supply of water in 

 all seasons, and he never tries to monopolize the 

 sunlight and the air, but runs up straight, a hun- 

 dred feet or more, and then throws out a small 

 plumy top. He can afford to do this because he 

 has a whole year of foliage and sunlight, while the 

 birch and the maple have but six months. 



Then he takes sparingly of the kind of food 

 necessary for his neighbors, just a little starch for 

 his seeds. Then he mulches the ground around his 

 neighbors' roots with his undecaying foliage, so 

 that they may have plenty of moisture. The maple 

 and the birch must have richer food than the pine, 

 and more of it. They each have a sweet tooth for 

 sugar. Therefore their roots seek the richer soil 

 of the surface, and they each want all the sunlight 

 they can get during the short summer. When 

 one of them has selected a plat of ground, the 



