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It makes the winter structure of the sweet-gum most distinct and picturesque, which appearance is accentuated by the interesting little seed-balls, or fruits, rounded and spiny, that hang long from the twigs.
"Light as the flying seed-balls is their play The silly maids!" "Who see in mould the rose unfold, The soul through blood and tears." "I cannot get this skirt to hang as Lady Edith's did," said Sarah Fox-Wilton discontentedly. "Spend twenty guineas on it, my dear, as Lady Edith did on hers, and it'll be all right," said a mocking voice. Sarah frowned.
It is said to close its sepals at noon, and was therefore called "Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon," but in fact it shuts much earlier, and often does not open at all, and you may pass twenty times and not see it open. Its head is like that of the dandelion, and children blow it to see what's o'clock in the same way. It forms a large ball, and browner; dandelion seed-balls are white.
We clambered high trees to collect baskets of wild grapes which our mother could not use, and we garnered nuts with the insatiable greed of squirrels. We ate oak-shoots, fern-roots, leaves, bark, seed-balls, everything! not because we were hungry but because we loved to experiment, and we came home, only when hungry or worn out or in awe of the darkness.
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