The Chorus of the Forest 



have colored, mid most of them fallen, hefore 

 these hirds migrate. They remain with us, as the 

 larks, until frost and cold drive them awaj^ After 

 the young hecome self-supporting the family 

 perches among the hranches of a hig tree for the 

 niglit. This is cold, unattractive husiness hy No- 

 vemher, for there is little shelter on any tree save 

 among the dry leaves of oaks and beeches. 



There is a smaller tree that once deceived me 

 into the belief that it was clinging to its dead 

 leaves as do its larger fellows, but examination The Hop- 

 proved that it was loaded with dry seed clusters. Tree Dance 

 It Mas a hop tree, and the seeds were very similar 

 to those of the slippery elm. They are almost 

 round in shape, flat, a small oval seed in the center, 

 a thin drj' rim aroinid it, and a twig bears from 

 forty to sixty in one cluster. Each seed liangs 

 from a tough, slender stem. AVhen the wind blows 

 the hop tree is the greatest musician of the woods. 

 But there is no sobbing, no wailing, no sadness in 

 its notes. It plays a haj^py, clipping dance tune. 

 From every side the wind catches the flat see<l sur- 

 faces and sets tliem shaking with an enlivening 

 rustle, and when millions of them strike together, 

 all the jiixies, gnomes, and fairies come trooping 

 to the hall of the woods and begin wildly dancing 

 as the hop tree shakes its castanets. 



Before you know it you come to the end of 

 the woods. When we stop to think, the earth as 



155 



