"
"Do they eat 'em instead of bread?" asked Edith. "I'd like that; they're
ever so much nicer!"
"Perhaps you would not think so if you had hardly anything else to eat;
you would get tired of them then. In many places on the continent of
Europe the roads are lined with walnut trees for miles together, and in
the proper season the people may feast upon the fruit as much as they
like. A person, it is said, once traveled from Florence to Geneva and
ate nothing by the way but walnuts; but I must say that I should not
like to do it. One species bears a nut as large as an egg; but if kept
any time, it will shrink to half its natural size. The shell of this
great walnut, we are told, is sometimes used for making little
ornamental boxes to hold gloves and small fancy-articles; so you see
that mine was not the only glove-bag made of two walnut-shells."
"How pretty they must be!" said Clara. "I should like to see one."
"I think that I can make one when I get a large nut, and I shall be glad
to show you how it is done."
This was a delightful prospect, and the children volunteered to save for
that especial purpose all the large nuts they could find.
"The English walnut tree," continued Miss Harson, "is a native of
Persia or the North of China, and the long pinnated leaves seem to mark
its Oriental origin; but it has taken very kindly to its European home.
In some parts of Germany the walnut trees were considered to be such a
valuable possession that no young man was allowed to marry until he
owned a certain number; and if one tree was cut down, another was
always planted.
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