"
"And couldn't the poor little mouse get out again?" asked Edith.
"I am afraid not, dear; and we can only rejoice that we did not live in
those dark days. Among other beliefs in its virtues, the leaves and
wood of the ash were regarded throughout Northern Europe as a protection
from all manner of snakes, and in harvest-time children were suspended
in their cradles from the branches of tall ash trees while their mothers
were working in the harvest-field below. Even now serpents are said to
dislike the tree so much that they will not come near it, and the leaf
is considered a cure for the bite of a poisonous snake. I have been told
that an ash-leaf rubbed on a mosquito-bite will at once take out the
sting and itching, and no better remedy can be found for the sting of a
bee or a wasp."
"It's ever so much nicer than mud," said Clara, who had rather a talent
for getting into hornets' nests.
"But the mud, you see, is always to be had," replied Miss Harson, "while
ash-leaves do not grow everywhere; and I do not know that they have any
power to cure the sting.
"The other species of ash found in this country are not so important as
the white, but the black ash is remarkable as the slenderest deciduous
tree of its height to be found in the forest. It is often seventy or
eighty feet tall, with a trunk not more than a foot around. The color of
the trunk is a dark granite-gray and the bark is rough. The wood is
remarkable for its toughness, and for making baskets the Indians prefer
it to any other, except the trunk of a young white oak.
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