WALKS WITH NATURE
(Continued from Page 1)

 

would be interesting to study the
plants on either side of these hills be-
cause the soil over which the ice pas-
sed is somewhat different irom that
further south. These hills which you
" see represent the debris dropped and
the soil pushed up at the edge of this
great moving piece of ice.

II. Right about face again, cross
the athletic field noting again boulders
dropped by the sheet of ice referred
to, past the group of apple trees, cros-
sing some woods which just reach the
upper edge of the hillside. In about
the middle of the field, where it be-
gins to slope slightly to the west, a
series of cracks in the goil one to three
inches wide and a foot or more deep
will be found. At one place instead
of a crack, the soil has dropped dow
forming a ditch. This is the result
of a minature earthquake, caused by
a local coal mine, which is many feel
below, the entrance'of which is in the
rear of the school campus.

ITI. Passing now to the northeast,
reaching the woods, climb the rail fen-
ce and follow the trail to the noxth.
After two or three minutes walk,
just before emerging into more open
space, a short patch of short stemmed
strawberries will be found. At first
sight they are unripe, being green in
color; picking one it proves to be soft
tasting it is found to be like a ripe red
strawberry. This is a rather rare
plant, when found, however, always
occurring in quite good-sized patches.

IV Continuing a little to the north,
note the low bushes, the leaves of
which are placd in pairs opposite each
other, stems very smooth, well-groom-
ed, the leaves are neat prominent
veins. This is flowering dogwood.
Continue through bearing slightly to
the left, and there will be found two
or three acres of a dense growth of
flowering dogwood, some of the trees
reaching a height of fifteen or twenty
feet. It is very unusual to find such
a pure stand of this plant. Nearly
always it is found as scant specimens
growing under the trees of the more
open Pennsylvania forests. A study
will show that at one time a growth
of large trees was once located here.

THE SLIPPERY ROCKET

The stumps can be seen. At one time,
then, the dogwood was an undergrow-
th, the older forest having been cut,
the dogwood has usurped the space.
Here and there an oak, chestnut or
poplar is poking its head up above
the re . t, and again some day the dog-
wocd here
growth, towered over by tall growing
trecs.

The walk is well worth while just
for the sake of seeing this unusual
condition and especially when tae
plant is in full bloom in the spring
and when in fruit with its red berries
in the fall. Dogwood is used in the
manufacture of tool handles, mallets,
and other places where hard wood
with fine grain is essential.

The return to the Normal School
can be made over the same path with
profit, but if time permits, one may
swing around to the right to the foot
of the hill following it to the normal
woods and thence back to the school
buildings. Another choice for the re-
turn would be to pass directly through
the small dogwood forest to the high-
way, turning to the right or to the
left and bear around by one road or
the other turning at each corner until
the school is reached.

Let us go to the open to try to un-
derstand rather than to just see with-
out understanding.

Note:—The nature study depart
ment will appreciate it if students will
report having taken this trip. In thig
way it will be possible to determine
the demand for such outlines.

 

A PASTORAL ROMANCE
(Continued from Page 1)

 

gather a blossom or even to caress one
in passing by or in working among
them. The only other ornament in
the yard was a truly remarkable
growth of ferns, but to these she
paid not the slightest attention. Tae
front porch was bare, and the door
locked and barred. The walk around
the house wag of old gray stones that
had the look of long disuse. But the
back of the house showed evidence of
busy, ordered life. The bare windows
revealed a neat kitchen, the open wash
house door — if it ever stood open -
would have disclosed the little churn,

may become an undey-'

the woods, tubs, baskets of bulbs,
milk cans, chicken grain, and a score
of other necessary but unsightly farm
implements.

The narrow road that led past Nel-
lies house could have told stories it-
self, stories of long morning and eve
ning from the little white house to the
little white school and back again.
Perhapg it, and it alone, could have
told of a stormy heart pacing up that
road the spring evening that an old
white haired teacher gave up her task
in order to pick up and shoulder an-
other duty. Certainly, the soft old
road could remember the morning
that frightened neighbors carried up
the hill the usually erect school-teach-
er, grimly nursing with a scourched
left hand the arm that supported a
burnt and paralized right hand. It is
a heartless thing to record of the
neighbors that as soon as Nellie had
trained her left hand to do the work
of the useless right one, they almost
forgot her disability, though they
never completely forgot the incident
that caused it. A child, warming her-
self at thé stove, had caught fire and
Nellie, without turning back her own
sleeves, seized the child and rolied her
in a coat, her own glove and sleeve
burning brightly.

But to go back to her giving up her
school. No weakness or old age af-
fected Nellie. She simply had another
duty. Inthe early years of her teach-
ing, shortly after her fathers death,
her frail domineered-over mother de-
veloped heart trouble. At first Nellie
brushed this aside, as she did her own
infrequent illnesses, ag something to
be conquered and forgotten as soon as
possible. But when the duties of
home and farm began to fall more
and more heavily upon her, and she
perceived that they were likely to con-
tinue to do so, she devoted herself
to her “duty.” She mairched across
the road to her sweetheart’s house
and said to him, without preamble or
parley, “Martin, we've got to give up
this idea of getting married, I've got
another duty.” Martin retreated to
the barn, but Nellie marched back ac-
ross the road and churned butter.
Why Martin could not have moved a-
crosg the road and helped with the
“duty” was not clear to anyone, even