“I am going to remember that,” said Malcolm; “I could never make out what all those different things meant.”

“What are you thinking about so seriously, Clara?” asked her governess.  “If it is a puzzle, let me see if I cannot solve it for you.”

“Well, Miss Harson, I was thinking of those brown leaves, or ‘needles,’ in the pine-woods, and it seems strange to say that the leaves of evergreens never fall off.”

“It would not only be strange, dear, but quite untrue, to say that; for the same leaves do not, of course, remain for ever on the tree.  The deciduous trees lose their leaves in the autumn and are entirely bare until the next spring, but the evergreens, although they renew their leaves, too, are never left without verdure of some sort.  Late in October you may see the yellow or brown foliage of the pines, then ready to fall, surrounding the branches of the previous year’s growth, forming a whorl of brown fringe surmounted by a tuft of green leaves of the present year’s growth.  Their leaves always turn yellow before the fall.”

CHAPTER XIX.

GIANT AND NUT PINES.

Great was the surprise of Edith when Miss Harson gave the little sleeper a gentle shake and told her that it was time to be up.  But the birds without the window told the same story, and the little maiden was soon at the breakfast-table and ready for the day’s duties and enjoyments, including their “tree-talk.”

“Are there any more kinds of pine trees?” asked Malcolm.

[Illustration:  “AWAKE, LITTLE ONE!”]

“Yes, indeed!—­more than we can take up this summer,” replied Miss Harson.  “There is the Norway pine, or red pine, which in Maine and New Hampshire is often seen in forests of white and pitch pine.  It has a tall trunk of eighty feet or so, and a smooth reddish bark.  The leaves are in twos, six or eight inches long, and form large tufts or brushes at the end of the branchlets.  The wood is strong and resembles that of the pitch-pine, but it contains no resin.  The giant pines of California belong to a different species from any that we have been considering, and the genus, or order, in which they have been arranged is called Sequoia[19].  They are generally known, however, as the ‘Big Trees.’  In one grove there are a hundred and three of them, which cover a space of fifty acres, called ‘Mammoth-Tree Grove.’  One of the giants has been felled—­a task which occupied twenty-two days.  It was impossible to cut it down, in the ordinary sense of the term, and the men had to bore into it with augers until it was at last severed in twain.  Even then the amazing bulk of the tree prevented it from falling, and it still kept its upright position.  Two more days were employed in driving wedges into the severed part on one side, thus to compel the giant to totter and fall.  The trunk was no less than three hundred and two feet in height and ninety-six in circumference.  The stump, which was left standing, presented such a large surface that a party of thirty couples have danced with ease upon it and still left abundant room for lookers-on.”