450 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Pendergast we measure him by that hfe. Best of all, as I remember 

 him, having been in contact with him for some eighteen years, that 

 life seemed to him as being the essential point. It was emphasized 

 in his government as a teacher and as superintendent O'f our farm 

 school. It was spontaneous with him ; he governed by kindness, 

 because he believed in kindness and love ; and he governed well be- 

 cause he appealed to the most noble and the highest instincts of the 

 people with whom he was brought in contact. It was one of those 

 indications of the higher portion of our life. He was exceedingly 

 charitable in his conversation, and the more I see of men and the 

 more I study society the more I am inclined to place great stress 

 on that type of life that is charitable of the faults and shortcomings 

 of others. And with Professor Pendergast I want to speak a kind 

 word for my and your old friend. Col. John H. Stevens. Both of 

 them were similar in this respect. When we had occasion to speak 

 of others in a spirit of criticism they would have a sense of pain 

 in their countenances, and they would cast about for something good 

 to say of them. I want to bear testimony to the fact that Professor 

 Pendergast used his tongue exceedingly well. He lived near to 

 nature's heart. I remember I was one day sitting in his office in the 

 capitol building when he said to me, "Mr. Gregg, I think very much 

 more of the money I get from my farm than I do of my salary." 

 Do you know what it meant? You understand. The fruitage of 

 the soil was dear to him. The money only measured his love for 

 the product of the soil. That was why he became a member of the 

 horticultural society. That was why he enjoyed himself in this 

 society. That is why toward the close of his life he took so much 

 pleasure in his home in the country and gave it his most careful 

 attention. 



My time is expired, and I close by saying I wish this world had 

 a greater number of those who live and measure up to the standard 

 of life like our old friend and horticultural associate. Professor W. 

 W. Pendergast. 



OUR COUSINS, THE TREES. 



MRS. FLORENCE BARTON LORING, MINNEAPOLIS. 



Though we can no longer cling to the "creed outworn" of the 

 pagan, believing every tree to represent the abode of a wood-nymph, 

 yet some of us regard these most lovable objects of inanimate na- 

 ture with an emotion at once more intimate and no less appreciative 

 and human. 



The dryad of ancient days was the daughter of superstition and 

 poesy : a lovely being, but somewhat elusive, except to the ultra 

 imaginative person ; whereas our cousin, the tree, in modern days, 

 unaided by any interest beside that appertaining to itself, to the 

 seeing mind and feeling heart, affords an object of reverence, so- 

 licitude, admiration and afifection unequalled by aught that lacks 

 the breath of life. 



, You will remember that Lowell, in his poem of "Under the Wil- 

 lows," alludes to this relationship in the following beautiful lines: 



