'"
"I wish we had some," said Edith, "with singing-birds in 'em."
"Why, my dear child," replied her governess, "have we not the beautiful
elms, in which the birds build their nests and where they fly in and out
continually? They are the very same birds that build in the
Lombardy poplars."
"I thought that singing-birds always lived in cages," said the little
queen in the easy-chair.
"And did you think they were hung all over the Lombardy poplars?" asked
Malcolm, in a broad grin.
Edith laughed too, and Miss Harson said smilingly.
"I thought that the birds about Elmridge did a great deal of singing,
and the blue-birds and robins kept it up all day. But I should not like
to see the old Lombardy poplars hung with gilded cages, and the birds
which should happen to be prisoners in the cages would like it
still less."
"Well," said Edith, contentedly, as she settled herself again to
listen.
"The poplar," continued Miss Harson, "has a great many insect enemies,
and the Lombardy is not often seen now, because a great many of these
trees were destroyed on account of a worm, or caterpillar, by which they
were infested. Poplar-wood is soft, light and generally of a pale-yellow
color; it is much used for toy-making and for boarded floors, 'for which
last purpose it is well adapted from its whiteness and the facility with
which it is scoured, and also from the difficulty with which it catches
fire and the slowness with which it burns.
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