READING SIGNS u 



where once a limb projected. For some reason, 

 probably from lack of light and leaf, due to 

 crowding neighbors, the limb died, decayed, and 

 broke off near the trunk of the tree. Nature 

 patched the rent. The bark is smoother than 

 the other, only because it is younger. Each 

 year the bark of the tree grows thicker and 

 heavier. 



A little farther on is a tree with a large knot 

 hole. As we look at it wondering, an incautious 

 woodpecker backs out and flies off with a 

 startled ker-r-ruck. Did he make the hole? 

 No. At least he did not begin it, though he may 

 possibly have drilled it a little deeper. It, too, 

 marks the place of a former limb. This limb 

 was slower in dying than the other, and it broke 

 off so far from the tree that Nature could not 

 possibly cover the stub. So, as the years have 

 passed, the limb has gone on decaying deeper 

 and deeper into the trunk of the tree. 



Over here is a branch, dead but not fallen. 

 Let us find what steps Nature has taken to 

 prune this. Ah! See here is a sort of collar 

 around the base of the dead branch. Next 

 spring, when the tree wakens to active growth, 

 a new layer of young wood will be spread all 

 over the living trunk and branches. About the 

 ill-fated branch no new; wood can form, because 



