"Did you _really_?" cried two eager voices. "How _could_ you? Oh, do
tell us about it!"

"I was making a visit at a village in Maine," said their governess,
"where the beautiful trees are to be seen in all their perfection, and I
thought it would be appropriate to write a letter from there on birch
bark. So I split my bark very thin and got a respectable sheet of it
ready; then I cut another piece, to form an envelope, and gummed it
together. I had quite a struggle to write on it decently with a steel
pen, because the pen would go through the paper; but I persevered, and
finally I accomplished my letter. It seemed odd to put a postage-stamp
on birch bark, and I smiled to think how surprised the home-people
would be to get such a letter. They _were_ surprised, and they told me
afterward that the postman laughed when he delivered it."

The children thought this very interesting, and they wished that there
were canoe-birch trees growing at Elmridge, that they might be enabled
to try the experiment for themselves.

"Now," continued Miss Harson, "I am going to read you an account of
canoe-making, and of some other uses to which the bark is put:

"'In Canada and in the district of Maine the country-people place large
pieces of the bark immediately below the shingles of the roof, to form a
more impenetrable covering for their houses. Baskets, boxes and
portfolios are made of it, which are sometimes embroidered with silk of
different colors. Divided into very thin sheets, it forms a substitute
for paper, and placed between the soles of the shoes and in the crown of
the hat it is a defence against dampness. But the most important purpose
to which it is applied, and one in which it is replaced by the bark of