THE SLEEP OF THE TREES 99 



wood-ants and the mole deep in tlieir long sleep, 

 and the chipmunk napping in his burrow. 

 Some flies and grubs are buried well below the 

 surface soil. Farther still are the tip ends of 

 the tree roots, slowly absorbing water, that they 

 may be ready for business when the Frost King 

 withdraws to his realms in the North. 



As spring draws near, the tree, like the bride 

 of the Canticles, sleeps while her "heart 

 waketh," listening through her dreams for "the 

 voice of her beloved and his knock upon the 

 door." Soon the frost^ine begins to rise, the 

 little rootlets are released from their prison 

 and begin to stretch and grow eagerly. Long 

 before the trunk and boughs rouse to activity, 

 they are busily at work, storing every tiny cell 

 with soil-water. The warm days of early 

 spring find them ready and soon "the sap be- 

 gins to stir." Slowly, steadily, through ave- 

 nues long unused, it mounts upward and on- 

 ward through the many cells, stored with 

 starches and other plant foods, to the very ends 

 of the twigs — a marvelous journey! And one 

 which no one fully understands. Often it is all 

 of 400 feet from the nethermost root to the top- 

 most spray, much of the way the sap must climb 

 straight' upward, and always it is a slow proc- 

 ess, for the journey is through tiny hair-like 



