The Delvers in Darkness 115 



There are many living things under the snow 

 also. Down there are wood-ants, torpid in their 

 nests, chipmunks napping In their burrows, and 

 moles asleep In their underground homes. 



Down there are grubs, and cocoons, and Insect 

 eggs, and earth-worms, wriggled away below the 

 reach of frost. Still farther down are the tip 

 ends of tree roots, resting till spring. Many of 

 these root-tips live in earth which never freezes, 

 even in the coldest winters. 



Freezing does not go very far down. Engineers 

 have to find out just how far it does go, because 

 water pipes and sewers must be beyond the reach 

 of frost. In New York, pipes are thought safe 

 If they have five feet of earth above them, while 

 in Buffalo or Cleveland they must be six or seven 

 feet below the pavement. 



Even in the most northern parts of the country 

 the tip ends of long roots are always quite out of 

 Jack Frost's reach. They need not suspend busi- 

 ness because of the cold. But the root-tips are 

 part of the tree, and so they stop working and 

 growing, just as all the rest of the tree does, when 

 heavy frost comes. 



The tip ends of the tree roots collect water 

 from the earth — drinking Is their special business. 

 All the water which the tree needs and uses Is 

 gathered out of the soil by the slenderest, smallest 

 rootlets, and by the very ends of larger roots. 

 And all that part of the tree's food which comes 



