THE POETS' CORNER 83 



This mighty tree's progenitors sheltered Abraham and his flocks 

 when they came up from Egypt to possess the land. 



"Then Abraham removed his tent and came and dwelt 

 in the Plains of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an 

 altar unto the Lord." Genesis XIII, 18. 



The memory of those huge sheltering oaks of Mamre, the scene 

 of his joyous entrance into Hebron, stayed with the patriarch Abra- 

 ham until the end, and in the cave of Macphelah, almost within their 

 shadow, according to his dying behest, the stricken Israelites buried 

 their revered leader. Here also, in this family rock tomb in natural 

 sequence, Isaac and Jacob, his son and grandson, found a final resting 

 place near these same mighty trees that Abraham loved. 



I picked the above peculiar leaves that spring morning from 

 the only one of the Mamre oaks now left, which is, I am told, the only 

 mature specimen of its species in the world. Perhaps we kept the 

 half dozen acorns too long before planting, for they refused 

 to germinate, though they received more care than any other seeds 

 in the Poets' Corner, and di-appointment number twenty was 

 entered on the debit side of the ledger page marked "Experiments," 

 under which caption we chronicled successes and failures in Farm- 

 arcadia. 



The Tree. 



The best epitome of human life in nature is the tree, so closely 

 symbolizing birth, growth, beauty, strength; sturdily withstanding 

 blast and storm, until, like an old man bowed with a century of work, 

 the roots loosen, the top breaks, the trunk splits asunder, and worm 

 and mold attack that which, having performed its work, must 

 submit to dissolution and readjustment, as Dr. Holmes realistically 

 pictures: 



"Now his nose is thin, 

 And it rests upon his chin 



Like a staff ; 



And a crook is in his back 

 And a melancholy crack 

 In his laugh." 



Joys of Pruning. 



Immediately after the tree was planted, its metho'dical care 

 began, but it was rarely arduous work; a lopped off limb; an 

 uprooting of the suckering sprouts, a thinning of the branches, 

 made a thing of beauty of what might have been supreme ugliness. 

 Neglect of the pruning knife, with too close planting, will absolutely 

 ruin the most attractive tree. One of our greatest pleasures was that 

 of pruning. To let in air and sunlight; to spread out the spindler, 

 and train upward the low grower; to cut out the leprous black knot 



