The Birds' Calendar 



blem of stability and vigor, of dignity and 

 grace, as it endures from generation to gener- 

 ation, now haughtily and stiffly defying the 

 blasts of winter, and again, in gracious and re- 

 sponsive mood, gently swaying in the summer 

 breeze. Hardly less criminal than the wanton 

 extinction of animal life is the needless de- 

 struction of one of these splendid growths, 

 with its heritage of years and its beneficent 

 mission. And when such a landmark of a cen- 

 tury has been laid low by the lightning or the 

 woodman's axe, it excites a feeling akin to that 

 with which we look upon a prostrate and life- 

 less human form. 



How many human moods are symbolized by 

 the trees: the weeping willow, the ambitious 

 poplar, the mournful cypress, the courtly elm, 

 the silent, thoughtful pine, the stern and 

 rugged oak. Of all the trees, the poets seem 

 to find the oak most picturesque and human ; 

 distant, grand, defiant, like the eagle among 

 the birds ; angular and rigorous, a type of puri- 

 tanism ; its brusque manners in sharp contrast 

 to the suavity of the elm ; a Carlylean tree 

 that sort of being whose friends are few, but of 

 the strongest sort ; asking no favors, but not 

 unwilling after its grim fashion to do a kind- 

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