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Among the Trees at Elmridge by Ella Rodman Church
page 81 of 233 (34%)
Little Edith was wide awake again by this time, and her great blue eyes
looked as if she were ready to devour every word.

"Birch rods," continued Miss Harson, "are quite different from birch
_twigs_, and the uses to which they were put were not altogether
agreeable to the boys who ran away from school or did not get their
lessons. 'My branches,' says the birch, 'gently waving in the wind,
awakened in those days no feelings of dread with truant urchins--for
_all_ might be truants then, if so it pleased them--but at length a
scribe arose who thus wrote concerning my ductile twigs: "The civil uses
whereunto the birch serveth are many, as for the punishment of children
both at home and abroad; for it hath an admirable influence upon them to
quiet them when they wax unruly, and therefore some call the tree
_make-peace_"'" Malcolm and Clara both laughed, and asked their young
governess when the birch rods were coming; but Edith did not feel quite
so easy, and, with her bruised foot and all, it took a great deal of
petting that night to get her comfortably to bed.



CHAPTER VIII.

_THE POPLARS_.

The bruised foot was not comfortable to walk on for two or three days,
and Edith was settled in the great easy arm-chair with dolls and toys
and picture-books in a pile that seemed as if it would not stop growing
until every article belonging to herself and Clara had been gathered
there. "We can go on with our trees," said Miss Harson, "even if we do
not see them just yet; and this evening I should like to tell you
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