Madam How and Lady Why; or, First lessons in earth lore for children . t deal of poor land, as you will read some day,was thrown out of tillage, to become forest and downonce more. And what is the mount now ? A jungleof oak and beech, cherry and holly, young and old allgrowing up together, with the mountain ash andbramble and furze coming up so fast beneath them,that we have to cut the paths clear again year by , even the little cow-wheat, a very old-world plant,which only grows in ancient woods, has found its wayback again, I know not whence, and covers the openspaces with its pretty
Madam How and Lady Why; or, First lessons in earth lore for children . t deal of poor land, as you will read some day,was thrown out of tillage, to become forest and downonce more. And what is the mount now ? A jungleof oak and beech, cherry and holly, young and old allgrowing up together, with the mountain ash andbramble and furze coming up so fast beneath them,that we have to cut the paths clear again year by , even the little cow-wheat, a very old-world plant,which only grows in ancient woods, has found its wayback again, I know not whence, and covers the openspaces with its pretty yellow and white flowers. Manhad conquered this mount, you see, from Madam How, 0 194 MADAM HOW AND LADY WHY chap. hundreds of years ago. And she always lets manconquer her, because Lady Why wishes man to conquer:only he must have a fair fight with Madam How first,and try his strength against hers to the utmost. Soman conquered the wood for a while; and it becamecornfield instead of forest: but he was not strong andwise enough three hundred years ago to keep what he. COW-WHEAT had conquered; and back came Madam How, and tookthe place into her own hands, and bade the old foresttrees and plants come back again—as they would comeif they were not stopped year by year, down from thewood, over the pastures—killing the rich grasses asthey went, till they met another forest coming up frombelow, and fought it for many a year, till both madepeace, and lived quietly side by side for ages. X FIELD AND WILD 195 Another forest coming up from below ? Wherewould it come from ? From where it is now. Come down and look alongthe brook, and every drain and grip which runs intothe brook. What is here ? Seedling alders, and some withies among them. Very well. You know how we pull these aldersup, and cut them down, and yet they continually comeagain. Now, if we and all human beings were to leavethis pasture for a few hundred years, would not thosealders increase into a wood ? Would they not kill
Size: 1226px × 2037px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublishe, booksubjectgeology
