Show F mistletoe is t let the T C hunt by FRANCES N c E S GRINSTEAD I 1 by 0 baby bunting daddys daddes gone a hunting huntine wit when tn the mothers of young children in the east oklahoma countryside sing this nursery song to their little ones they may out of loyalty to mother goose add the next two lines for to find a rabbit skin to wrap the eaby baby buntina bunting in but that exactly what daddy does down there when it comes the time 0 year that the baby n needs neds eds warmer covering dadd daddy Y takes his gun and goes out to shoot down mistletoe this he sells for the christmas trade and buys baby bunting a different kind of raiment for mistletoe with its well known holiday meaning grows ina in abundance there and is a always found high among the bare winter branches of the native elm little boys climb tor for it of course but the quickest way to gather it for commercial use is to shot it down open season for mistletoe hunting begins about the last of november and the demand increases steadily until christmas truck loads of the green sprigs with their wax white berries are driven to the cities of tile tae north for the holiday trade As the mistletoe is not always uniformly r ripe ipe at the time it is wanted much hunting is required tc to find sprigs whose berries are at a s tage stage to i suit the demands of the buyers at such times the roadsides may be strewn with discarded mistletoe tor for the condition of the berries cannot I 1 be seen until the sprig sp rig has been shot down but such waste is not lamented for mistletoe is a parasite that reappears in ab abundance each year however ruthl ruthlessly it may be treated 0 C western newspaper union |