"No, we are out for a tramp to find trees and I am not going to talk of things you are not old enough to understand," said Miss Miller positively.
"Miss Miller, here's a maple, but it's not red!" said Jane, pointing to the rounded top of a thick tree.
"That's a sap maple like the ones in the sugar grove. If it were spring we could tap the trunk and get some of the sweet saccharine that rises up in the trunk. The sugar maple grows as high as seventy feet and sometimes measures three feet in diameter. It has hard wood, of satiny lustre. It generally has a well-formed crown and thick foliage. A single maple will yield from five to ten pounds of maple sugar in season."
"Zan, for goodness' sake, let us have some sugar when you can get it!" exclaimed Elena.
"All right, remind me and we will ask Bill if there is any left from this spring's boiling," replied Zan.
"There's a Christmas tree, Miss Miller."
"Oh, help! A spider's got on me! It crawled from that bush!" cried Nita, vainly squirming and shaking herself to throw off the insect.
The other girls ran away from her for they too, were afraid of a spider.
"Pooh! It won't hurt you! Can't any of you tell the difference between a poisonous and a harmless bug?" Zan cried.