ZERO BIRDS 33 



tain to a broken-down rail fence, where grew a thicket 

 of tiny trees with smooth trunks, whose gray twigs 

 were laden down with bunches of what looked like 

 tiny purple plums. Each one had a layer of pulp over 

 a flat stone, and this pulp, what there was of it, had a 

 curious attractive spicy sugary taste. The Captain 

 told the Band that these were nanny-plums, some- 

 times known as sweet viburnum. Further on, they 

 found clusters of little purple fox-grapes, fiercely 

 sour in the fall, but now sweetened enough, under 

 the bite of the frost, to be swallowed. 



Still the Captain was not ready to stop. Up the 

 hillside he led them, by a winding path through 

 tangled thickets, until in a level place he brought 

 them to a group of curious trees. The bark of these 

 was deeply grooved and in places nearly three inches 

 thick, while the branches were covered with scores 

 and scores of golden-red globes. Some were wrinkled 

 and frost-bitten until they had turned brown, but 

 others still hung plump and bright in the winter air. 

 It was a grove of persimmon trees. Before he could 

 be stopped, Henny -Penny had picked one of the best- 

 looking of the lot and took a deep bite out of the soft 

 pulp. Immediately thereafter he spat out his first 

 taste of persimmon with great emphasis, his mouth 

 so puckered that it was with difficulty that he could 

 express his unfavorable opinion of the new fruit. 



"Handsome is as handsome does," warned the 

 Captain. "Try some of the frost-bitten ones. " 



The Band accordingly did so, and found that the 

 worst-looking and most wrinkled specimens were 



