What a wonderful thing a tree is! A live thing, a useful thing, a
beautiful thing, and so common that we scarcely think of it as a
wonder at all.

Think of the great families of trees, the maple, the beech, the birch,
the hemlock, the spruce, the oak, and so on and on and on. So many
alike, and yet each one different. What a world of wonders!

In the human family there are oddities, you know, and so in the tree
family.

There is the whistling tree, for instance. It grows in the West India
Islands. It bears pods with open edges, and the wind passing through
them makes the whistling sound which gives the tree its name.

Then there is the cow tree, which yields a delicious creamy milk. This
tree grows in South America, and often looks like a dead tree, but if
it is tapped the milk will flow out freely. Sunrise is "milking time,"
when the natives come with their jugs and fill them with the sweet,
nourishing fluid.--_Selected_.

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TWENTY VALENTINES