SUMMARY OF LIFE IN THE WOODS 291 



during the day than there are at night. Bats, rabbits, mice, 

 a few birds, and a number of insects are most active during 

 the night; but most birds, bees, grasshoppers, the greater 

 part of our butterflies, and most squirrels, are distinctly 

 diurnal. 



74. Forests in the Economy of Nature. 



We have alluded a number of times to the important part 

 that forests play in the household of nature ; we will now sum 

 up and recall what we have learned about that subject. Let 

 us try to recall what we saw when a heavy shower caught us 

 last summer in the woods, and when we had to stand under 

 the trees until the rain was over. 



You remember that the roads and the cornfield were so 

 dry before the shower that the dust was blown about on 

 them. In the woods, however, no dust was flying, and the 

 air felt very much cooler than that which blew from the 

 south across the cornfield which we had passed; nor did 

 we find any hard and baked soil such as we had observed all 

 along the road. In well-shaded places we discovered tufts 

 of maidenhair, and Bertha and Sadie dug up several tufts to 

 plant under their porches. You remember that it had not 

 rained for three weeks, and still the soil in which the ferns 

 grew was quite moist. 



The many fine roots, the humus, and the dense shade had 

 conserved the moisture in the woods much longer than it could 

 be retained by the exposed roads, fields, and prairies. 



Before we had time to return home the sky became clouded, 

 then the leaves began to rustle ; a little later we heard a 

 roaring sound far off, but it seemed to draw nearer; a few 

 minutes later the storm rushed through the tree tops over- 

 head, ashy clouds swept towards the northeast, and it 

 seemed to be getting dark. We had found shelter under 

 low trees with very dense branches and foliage. Suddenly 



