“Thank you, Miss Harson,” said Clara; “true stories are so nice!  But I wish I had seen the Charter Oak before it was blown down.”

“You could not have done that, dear,” was the reply, “unless you had been born about thirty years sooner.”

CHAPTER V.

BEAUTY AND GRACE:  THE ASH.

“What tree comes next, Miss Harson?” asked Clara, on an April day that was mild enough for the piazza.  “You told us so many interesting things about the oak that I suppose we needn’t expect to hear of another tree like that.”

“No,” was the reply; “not just like that, perhaps, for the oak is grand and venerable above all our familiar trees, but the ash, which is more especially an American tree, belongs to a large and interesting family, and I am quite sure that you will very much like to hear something about it.  I have put it next to the oak because there is a sort of rivalry between the two as to which can get on its spring dress the soonest, and an old English rhyme says,

     “’If the oak’s before the ash,
     Then you may expect a splash;
     But if the ash is ’fore the oak,
     Then you must beware a soak.’”

“That must mean,” said Malcolm, after considering this rather puzzling verse, “that it’ll rain any way.”

“I think it does,” replied Miss Harson, with a smile at Malcolm’s air of deep thought, “and it is quite safe to say that in England.  But, as ’a soak’ sounds more serious than ‘a splash,’ it is to be hoped that the ash will not get ahead of the oak.  I do not know what they are doing in England this year, but here the oak is a day or two ahead.  The foliage of the ash is entirely different, as it has pinnate leaves, which means leaves arranged in two rows, one on each side of a common stem, or petiole, like—­What, Clara?”

“Rose-leaves,” was the prompt reply.

“And leaves of the locust trees on the other side of the road,” added Malcolm.

[Illustration:  THE COMMON ASH.]

“And the sumac,” said their governess, “and a number of others that might be mentioned.  This kind of foliage is always graceful, and the ash is one of our largest and handsomest trees.  It is said to be more common in America than in any other part of the globe.  In Europe, because of its beauty, it is called the painter’s tree.  It is a particularly neat and regular-looking tree, and its smooth gray trunk is higher than that of most trees before any branches appear.  Where is there a tree on the grounds answering this description, Malcolm?”

“Down at the end of the vegetable-garden,” was the reply, “and close beside the laundry.”

[Illustration:  AMERICAN WHITE ASH.]