CHAPTER LXIV 



IN THE WOODS 



THE history of mushrooms reduced to a rule for 

 cooking which will save us from grave dangers 

 was enough for Simon, Mathieu, Jean, and the oth- 

 ers, who lacked time to hear more ; but Emile, Jules, 

 and Claire were not satisfied : they wished to extend 

 their knowledge on these strange vegetables. So 

 their uncle took them one day to a beech wood near 

 the village. 



The trees, several hundred years old and with 

 th rir branches meeting at a great height, formed an 

 arch of foliage through which, here and there, shone 

 a ray of sunlight. Their smooth trunks, with white 

 bark, gave the effect of enormous columns sustain- 

 ing the weight of an immense building full of shade 

 and silence. On the lofty summits crows cawed 

 while smoothing their feathers. Occasionally a red- 

 headed green woodpecker, surprised at its work, 

 which consists of pecking the wormy wood with its 

 1>< -ak to make the insects come out that it feeds on, 

 gave a cry of alarm and flew off like a dart. In the 

 midst of the moss with which the ground was car- 

 peted were here and there numbers of mushrooms. 

 Some were round, smooth, and white. Jules could 

 not admire them enough; he likened them in his im- 

 agination to eggs laid in a mossy hollow by some 



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