at the feast of tabernacles. Read the verse, Malcolm--the fortieth of
the twenty-third chapter of Leviticus."

Malcolm read:

"'And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees,
branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and _willows of
the brook;_ and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.'"

[Illustration: LEAF OF WEEPING WILLOW.]

"A place called the 'brook of the willows,'" added his governess, "is
mentioned in Isaiah xv. 7, and this brook, according to travelers in
Palestine, flows into the south-eastern extremity of the Dead Sea. The
willow has always been considered by the poets as an emblem of woe and
desertion, and this idea probably came from the weeping of the captive
Jews under the willows of Babylon. The branches of the _Salix
Babylonica_ often droop so low as to touch the ground, and because of
this sweeping habit, and of its association with watercourses in the
Bible, it has been considered a very suitable tree to plant beside ponds
and fountains in ornamental grounds, as well as in cemeteries as an
emblem of mourning."

"How much there is to remember about the willow!" said Clara,
thoughtfully. "I wonder if all the trees will be so interesting?"

"They are not all _Bible_ trees," replied Miss Harson. "But the wise
king of Israel found them interesting, for he 'spake of trees, from the
cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of
the wall.'"