"Well then, the chestnut is a deciduous tree that grows to a considerable height and size. Its timber is light weight, cross-grained and very durable; that is why it has been preferred in the past for posts. Its leaves are long and shiny and has sharp pointed edges. The nuts are sweet and of a starchy nature, also highly nutritious. The variety we have had in such numbers in the Middle Atlantic States have been destroyed by a strange fungoid disease that attacked them and was spread rapidly by wind and the birds until the finest trees are gone! It is almost impossible to detect the diseased tree until it is fated and soon an entire grove is doomed beyond help or cure.
"Foresters and gardeners have sought to protect and save other trees by cutting down a tree the moment the symptoms appeared, but it has been found useless. Even the timber of a diseased tree is worthless as it is soon entirely eaten by worms that are bred in the tree during the first stages of the disease."
"Maybe that is why we don't see so many chestnuts for sale?" pondered Hilda, who was very fond of the nut.
"Perhaps, and perhaps it is because a sick tree does not bear well. Personally, I believe chestnut trees like quiet and retirement and droop to die when civilisation creeps too close to their environment. If that is so, the chestnut trees have seen their best days, and the future will continue without any acquaintance with the extinct tree," said Miss Miller.
"Miss Miller talks of trees just as if they knew what was going on about them!" laughed Nita.
"That's what always makes her talks so vital and interesting to us!" commended Zan.
"They are all alive, and do know all that concerns them, but mortals never stop to think of this! I look at it in this light. We read in Genesis that God made everything and He saw that it was very good. Then, the narrative goes on to say that the Creator who made everything that was made had all Life, all Intelligence, all Love within Himself. Of this great power and love He created man in His own image and likeness. Man was given dominion over all living creatures and things. Now take that into your thought, girls! All living things! I firmly believe that the good God who gave us charge of all living things wanted us to watch over and love and use intelligence in the way we governed His creation. This tree is a living thing—it has as much of the divine authority to live as we have. It has as much divine intelligence as anything created for a purpose. So, this tree is recognised by me, who am also created by the same Father for a purpose, as a living thing growing to beautify the universe and to provide man with delicious food."
"Oh, Miss Miller if you were only a man what a fine preacher you would make!" exclaimed Zan enthusiastically.
"I can preach as well in my sphere as a woman!" laughed Miss Miller.
"Oh! are you a suffragist!" gasped Nita.