Uncle George and the two boys had been for a long walk. They brought home a lot of twigs which they had cut from trees at the roadside.

Uncle George placed some of these twigs in bottles filled with water. These bottles were placed in the window, so that they could get plenty of sunlight. The rest of the twigs were laid upon the table.

“Now, boys,” said Uncle George, “we are going to find out what buds are. Here is a twig of the horse-chestnut tree, and here is one of the beech tree. Do you notice any difference between them?”

“Oh, yes,” said Frank, “they are very different. The beech buds are longer.”

“Anything else?” his uncle asked.

“The horse-chestnut buds have sticky stuff all over them,” said Tom.

“Quite right,” said Uncle George. “On the beech twig the buds are placed singly on opposite sides. On the horse-chestnut twig the buds are in pairs.”

Then Uncle George cut one of the buds through with his knife, and they saw that a great number of thick scales were folded round a little green thing in the centre. They saw also a mass of woolly stuff between the scales and the little green object.

Uncle George gave each of the boys a twig, and showed them how to take the scales off the top bud with a large needle. The outside scales were not easily removed. They were so sticky—they stuck to everything that touched them, and soon the boys’ fingers were covered with the sticky stuff. As they went on with their work, they found out that the inner scales were not sticky. At last they got all the scales off, and there was nothing left but a tiny woolly mass. On teasing out, this woolly bundle was found to be a little branch bearing small leaves. Every part of it was covered with wool.

“Now,” said Uncle George, “you can perhaps tell me what a bud is.”

“It is just a little baby branch, snugly tucked up in a tiny blanket and well covered over with many scale-leaves,” said Frank.

“Very good,” said Uncle George. “Now tell me why it is tucked up in this warm blanket, and perhaps Tom can tell us what the sticky stuff on the outer scales is for.”

“I am sure I cannot tell,” said Frank.

“Just think,” said his uncle kindly. “Why did you call it a baby branch? Is it because it is so small, or because it is so snugly wrapped up? Why are babies wrapped up in soft warm clothing?”

“Oh, I know now,” said Frank, “The woolly stuff is to keep out the winter cold.”

“And the sticky stuff on the outside,” said Tom, “must be for keeping out the rain.”

“You are both right,” said Uncle George. “Buds are formed in autumn and early winter. They are, as you have seen, very tender little things. Frost or wet would kill them. But rolled up in soft woolly clothing, covered in with many thick scale-leaves, and made quite waterproof by a thick coat of the sticky stuff, they do not fear the cold.

“If you look at your twigs again, you will find that in taking off the scales you have left a thick ring of marks right round the twig.

“Now, if you look down the twig, you will notice another ring of such marks. These are the scale-marks of last year’s bud. The part of the twig in between these two ring marks is a year’s growth.”

“There is a third ring on mine farther down the stem,” said Frank.

“Yes, and another farther down still,” said Uncle George. “These are the bud marks of former years. Let us measure the distance between them, for in this way we can tell the kind of summers we have had in past years.