Evergreens in Spring 



trees five or six feet high, in hopes that, 

 after making a brave show for a few 

 months, they will be aided by some happy 

 freak of nature to take root in earnest. 



But planting Pines on a dry hillside is A lotttry in 

 like investing in a lottery the success " 

 of the enterprise depends wholly on the 

 sort of weather that immediately follows, 

 and who can reckon with that ? Talk of 

 the vicissitudes in the life of a broker 

 what are his uncertain and incalculable 

 quantities compared to those with which 

 the farmer and gardener have to deal ? A 

 broker can abstain from buying bonds 

 and stocks if he will, but the farmer has 

 to plant when the time comes, and take 

 his chances, and for surprises the weather 

 can give points to Wall Street any day. 

 With the largest experience and judgment 

 you can no more reckon securely on the 

 coming down of rain, than of Bell Tele- 

 phone, or Calumet and Hecla. 



No sooner are one's trees planted than 

 he becomes a bear upon the weather mar- 

 ket, but this summer, Old Probabilities 

 has made a corner with the bulls, and 

 kept rain up persistently, so that the wisest 

 157 



