This bark
is very smooth and soft, and it is easily separated into very thin
sheets. For this reason the tree is often called the paper birch, and
the smooth, thin layers of bark make very good writing-paper when none
other can be had."
"Oh, Miss Harson!" exclaimed Clara; "did you ever see any that was
written on?"
"Yes," was the reply; "I once wrote a letter on some myself."
"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.
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