Music of the Wild 



mottled estate, and then such a luscious, shining 

 black berry it has no equal; and if the birds get 

 any they must be ahead of the boys and girls. The 

 opossums must be before the boys at the persim- 

 mon tree, for few are left when they finish. The 

 robins love wild grapes, and cedar birds the poke 

 berries, and squirrels, hazelnuts. 



Hazel bushes are beautiful. The leaf is some- 

 thing like the elm in shape, though the hazel is of 

 finer cutting. They are nearly the same size, 

 deeply grooved on top, and heavily veined under- 

 neath. The nuts grow from two to six in a cluster 

 and are sheltered in a leafy, pulpy green cover with 

 fringed edges, most artistic and, I should think, of 

 great benefit to the decorator searching for an un- 

 hackneyed subject. There are many places where 

 they could be used with fine effect in leather work, 

 especially as the ripe nut is a good leather color. 

 But the boy who reaches the hazel bushes before 

 the squirrels gets up very early in the morning, 

 and then only too often to find that the worms 

 have been ahead of him ; for when green the shells 

 of hazelnut and chestnut are so very soft that bee- 

 tles bore into them and deposit eggs that hatch, 

 and the worm develops inside the shell, that hard- 

 ens later. This explains why so often you crack 

 a perfectly sound nut and find a wormy kernel. 



When the Limberlost leaves the thicket and 

 comes into the open again it does not spread, as 

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