Persimmons. 281 



ferently impress the rambler. When you stop for 

 a moment in your walks, on finding a notably 

 perfect ^example of any one of these trees, you 

 more than admire its beauty ; you fall to thinking 

 in lines that such a tree always suggests. The 

 thought of a tree or trees in the abstract will not 

 obtrude. If it does you are somewhere lacking, 

 or, for the time being, dyspeptic. Oak and strength, 

 willow and grace, cedar and gloom, these are ap- 

 proximately synonymous terms, and not so from 

 your own early associations merely, or through 

 impressions made by what has been told you in 

 childhood. The tree speaks to you. Were this 

 not true, a charm in woodland walks would be 

 lacking. The fact that the motion of the branches 

 is due to the passing breeze should be overlooked, 

 and the rustle of the leaves and murmur that fills 

 every corner of the forest, save where you stand, 

 help in this your fancy. Without a trace of child- 

 ishness on the rambler's part, the tree before him 

 is greeted as a friend. 



Another phase of the subject must be noted, 

 and that is the effect of early association. Here, 

 speaking personally, the persimmon looms up with 

 24* 



