The little Kyles did not care to go there
except when, as Edith said, there were ripe mulberries; but Mrs. Bush
liked very much to have them, and Miss Harson took her little charges
there occasionally, because, as she explained to them, it gave pleasure
to a lonely old woman, and such visits were just as much charity, though
of a different kind, as giving food and clothes to those who need them.
The children delighted in the mulberries just because they did not have
them at home, although they had fruit that was very much nicer; but Miss
Harson never wished even to taste them, although she too had liked them
when a little girl.
"The mulberry tree," continued their governess, "belongs to the
bread-fruit family, but the other members of this remarkable family,
except the Osage orange, are found only in foreign countries. The
bread-fruit tree itself, the fig, the Indian fig, or banyan tree, and
the deadly upas tree, are all relations of the mulberry."
"Well, trees are queer things," exclaimed Malcolm, "to belong to
families that are not a bit alike."
"They are alike in important points, when we examine them carefully,"
was the reply. "The bread-fruit genus consists, with a single exception,
of trees and shrubs with alternate, toothed or lobed or entire leaves
and milky juice. This reminds me that the famous cow tree of South
America, which yields a large supply of rich and wholesome milk, is one
of the members; and you see what a number of famous trees we have on
hand now.
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