Mary at the Farm | Page 6

blossom, and it is said to be an excellent remedy for chills and fevers,
and it tastes almost as bitter as quinine. There are bushels of dandelion
blossoms, some of which we shall pick tomorrow, and from them make
dandelion wine."
"And what use will my thrifty Aunt make of the blue violets?"
mischievously inquired Mary.
"The violets," replied her Aunt, "I shall dig up carefully with some
earth adhering to their roots and place them in a glass bowl for a
centrepiece on the table for my artistic and beauty-loving niece; and if
kept moist, you will be surprised at the length of time they will remain
'a thing of beauty' if not 'a joy forever.' And later, Mary, from them I'll

teach you to make violet beads."
"Aunt Sarah, notice that large robin endeavoring to pull a worm from
the ground. Do you suppose the same birds return here from the South
every Summer?"
"Certainty, I do."
"That old mulberry tree, from the berries of which you made such
delicious pies and marmalade last Summer, is it dead?"
"No; only late about getting its Spring outfit of leaves."
CHAPTER III.
SCHUGGENHAUS TOWNSHIP.
"Schuggenhaus," said Sarah Landis, speaking to her niece, Mary
Midleton, "is one of the largest and most populous townships in Bucks
County, probably so named by the early German settlers, some of
whom, I think, were my father's ancestors, as they came originally from
Zweibrucken, Germany, and settled in Schuggenhaus Township.
Schuggenhaus is one of the most fertile townships in Bucks County and
one of the best cultivated; farming is our principal occupation, and the
population of the township today is composed principally of the
descendants of well-to-do Germans, frequently called 'Pennsylvania
Dutch.'"
"I have often heard them called by that name," said Mary. "Have you
forgotten, Aunt Sarah, you promised to tell me something interesting
about the first red clover introduced in Bucks County?"
"Red clover," replied her Aunt, "that having bright, crimson-pink heads,
is the most plentiful and the most common variety of clover; but
knowing how abundantly it grows in different parts of the country at
the present time, one would scarcely have believed, in olden times, that
it would ever be so widely distributed as it now is.

"One reason clover does so well in this country is that the fertilization
of the clover is produced by pollenation by the busy little bumble-bee,
who carries the pollen from blossom to blossom, and clover is
dependent upon these small insects for fertilization, as without them
clover would soon die out."
"I admire the feathery, fuzzy, pink-tipped, rabbit-foot clover," said
Mary; "it is quite fragrant, and usually covered with butterflies. It
makes such very pretty bouquets when you gather huge bunches of it."
[Illustration: THE OLD MILL WHEEL]
"No, Mary, I think you are thinking of Alsatian clover, which is similar
to white clover. The small, round heads are cream color, tinged with
pink; it is very fragrant and sweet and grows along the roadside and,
like the common white clover, is a favorite with bees. The yellow hop
clover we also find along the roadside. As the heads of clover mature,
they turn yellowish brown and resemble dried hops; sometimes yellow,
brown and tan blossoms are seen on one branch. The cultivation of red
clover was introduced here a century ago, and when in bloom the fields
attracted great attention. Being the first ever grown in this part of
Bucks County, people came for miles to look at it, the fence around the
fields some days being lined with spectators, I have been told by my
grandfather. I remember when a child nothing appeared to me more
beautiful than my father's fields of flax; a mass of bright blue flowers. I
also remember the fields of broom-corn. Just think! We made our own
brooms, wove linen from the flax raised on our farm and made our own
tallow candles. Mary, from what a thrifty and hard-working lot of
ancestors you are descended! You inherit from your mother your love
of work and from your father your love of books. Your father's uncle
was a noted Shakespearean scholar."
Many old-time industries are passing away. Yet Sarah Landis, was a
housewife of the old school and still cooked apple butter, or "Lodt
Varrik," as the Germans call it; made sauerkraut and hard soap, and
naked old-fashioned "German" rye bread on the hearth, which owed its
excellence not only to the fact of its being hearth baked but to the rye
flour being ground in an old mill in a near-by town, prepared by the old

process of grinding between mill-stones instead of the more modern
roller process. This picture of the old mill, taken by Fritz Schmidt,
shows it is not artistic, but, like most articles of German