n 



BEADING SIGNS 



Tkees speak a sign language, which is easily 

 understood if one has the patience to study it, 

 and from it we may gather all manner of in- 

 teresting facts concerning their hopes and dis- 

 appointments, the trouble with their neighbors, 

 the secret of age, how they prune themselves, 

 how they take care of cuts and bruises and 

 broken limbs, and their struggle with the long 

 catalog of tree diseases, most of which are as 

 catching as the measles or the whooping-cough. 



The best way to study this sign language is 

 among the trees themselves. So let us hurry 

 away to the woods! Here we find the trees 

 jostling each other, like rude boys in a crowd, 

 the big fellows conquering the weaker ones and 

 pushing them aside. All are eagerly reaching 

 upward and outward for the sunlight which 

 makes life possible. 



Close at hand our sharpened eyes detect a 

 smooth spot on the rough bark of an oak. 

 "What does it mean? That spot marks a place 



10 



