BROOK MAGIC 



time of the year and see the little con- 

 ical red witch-caps hung on them. There 

 need be but little doubt that, sitting 

 under it at midnight of a full moon, 

 you may see the witch faces detach 

 themselves from the limbs, put on these 

 red caps and sail off across the great 

 yellow disk. That such things are not 

 seen oftener is simply because people are 

 dull and go to bed instead of sitting 

 out under the witch-hazel at midnight 

 of a full moon. 



To be sure there are scientific men, 

 gray-bearded entomologists, who will tell 

 us that these little red caps are galls, 

 the rearing-place of plant aphids, caused 

 by the laying of the mother insect's egg 

 within the tissue of the leaf, but one 

 might as well believe that the witches 

 hang their hats on the witch-hazel over 

 night as to believe that the laying of a 



