The Rescue of an Old Place 



appointing ; not, perhaps, so much from 

 their inherent wickedness, as from the 

 baneful influences of the world outside, the 

 flirtations with insects of which they are 

 capable, their predilection for ornament- 

 ing themselves with bright colored fungus 

 growths which check their development, 

 a perverseness about living, even when 

 given the very best advantages, only par- 

 alleled by those Chinese* servants who 

 go and kill themselves if their master 

 speaks sharply to them ; and, above all, a 

 stubbornness about adapting themselves 

 to new conditions as great as that of a 

 trueborn Briton. 

 A tree tkt Your tree is the true conservative, and 



true con- ..... . 



will insist upon its own way quite as un- 

 reasonably as a human being, even when 

 you are sure you know what is better for 

 it than it does itself. It is as hard to 

 bring it to a new way of living as it is to 

 bring about a constitutional amendment. 

 If there is a spot where you do not want 

 a tree to grow, notably a garden bed or 

 your potato patch, there it will insist on 

 coming up and making itself at home ; 

 but, take up this interloper and put it in a 

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