excellent torches with which to cheer the darkness of his long nights.
Fishermen, in like manner, make great use of them in alluring their
finny prey. For this purpose they fit a portion of blazing birch in a
cleft stick and spear the fish when attracted by its flickering light.'"

The children exclaimed at this queer way of fishing, but Malcolm was
very much taken with the idea of doing it by night with blazing torches,
and he thought that he would like to be a Norwegian fisherman even
better than a hermit or an Indian.

"The old tree goes on to say," continued Miss Harson, "that 'Finland
mothers form of the dried leaves soft, elastic beds for their children,
and from me is prepared the _mona_, their sole medicine in all diseases.
My buds in spring exhale a delicious fragrance after showers, and the
bark, when burnt, seems to purify the air in confined dwellings.'

"In Lapland the twigs of the birch, covered with reindeer-skins, are
used for beds, but they cannot be so comfortable, I should think, as the
leaves. The fragrant wood of the tree makes the fires which have to be
kept up inside the huts even in summer to drive away the mosquitoes, and
the people of those Northern regions would find it hard to get along
without the useful birch."

"I like to hear about it," said Clara. "Can you tell us something more
that is done with it, Miss Harson?"

"There is just one thing more," replied her governess, with a smile,
"which I will read out of an old book; and I desire you all to pay
particular attention to it."