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barrels full of sugar and many a time was I tapped as 

 my scarred trunk used to show. When I was chopped 

 down the workmen found that I was bird's-eye 

 maple and I was taken to a saw-mill and sawed 

 into boards from which this desk was made." 



"And how does one Sugar Maple get that beautiful 

 bird's-eye grain when others do not?" asked the 

 Yellow Birch, which had often admired its handsome 

 neighbour. 



"That is a secret," responded the Maple, "which 

 our family never reveals. I may say, however, 

 that just as trials and adversity bravely met put 

 strength into the fibre of men and women, so the 

 storms and stresses of tree life have something to do 

 with the grain of their wood." 



"What other troubles does a tree have besides the 

 fear of Fire?" asked the Stove. 



"Insects are very troublesome enemies," returned 

 the Sugar Maple. "Many of my brothers have 

 been killed by insects." 



"What remedy is there for that pest?" 



"Men can help us a great deal. For example, 

 they can breed good insects and set them free in the 

 forests to devour the evil inserts. But that is only 

 for scientists and government departments. What 

 all people and particularly all boys and girls can do 

 to help trees fight their insect enemies is to protect 

 the birds. Some little birds eat in one day as many 

 as fifteen hundred bad insects, insects that are not 

 only bad for trees but bad also for the farmer's 

 crops, and yet boys and girls often kill birds thought- 

 lessly, or smash their eggs. Cats, too, are allowed 

 to grow into wicked bird-eaters. Many a fine 

 tree has died because there were not enough birds 



