NUTTING TIME 303 



seeds as far away as possible, so that they need not 

 all grow in one clump together. The seeds are not 

 light enough to sail on the wind ; and they have no 

 prickers to catch into people's clothes, who will 

 carry them away and sow them in diiferent places. 

 So the Witch-hazel thinks the best way to scatter 

 its seeds is to shoot them out as far as ever it 

 can." 



" Perhaps that's why it is called Witch-hazel," 

 Lucy said. 



" No," Tommy told her, " it is called ' witch ' 

 on account of its twigs. They can show people 

 where there is gold, or water, under the ground." 



"Hurrah! hurrah 1" Philip shouted. "We'll 

 find gold now." 



He was going to break a straight twig from the 

 shrub when Tommy stopped him. 



" You must take a branch that is shaped like 

 a pitch-fork," he said. 



Fortunately there were a good many of this 

 kind on the shrub, and soon we each had chosen 

 one. We held the forked pieces tightly in 

 our hands, and let the straight part point away 

 from us. 



" Now, we must walk around," Tommy said, 

 " and when we pass over gold, or water, the long 

 end of the twig will tremble and the whole piece 

 will turn in our hands." 



We went down the road, and afterward into the 

 meadow next to Miss Amelia's ; but the twigs kept 



