My First Summer 



size the yellow pine almost equals the sugar 

 pine, and in rugged enduring strength seems 

 to surpass it, it is far less marked in general 

 habit and expression, with its regular con- 

 ventional spire and its comparatively small 

 cones clustered stiffly among the needles. 

 Were there no sugar pine, then would this 

 be the king of the world's eighty or ninety 

 species, the brightest of the bright, waving, 

 worshiping multitude. Were they mere me- 

 chanical sculptures, what noble objects they 

 would still be ! How much more throb- 

 bing, thrilling, overflowing, full of life in 

 every fibre and cell, grand glowing silver- 

 rods the very gods of the plant kingdom, 

 living their sublime century lives in sight 

 of Heaven, watched and loved and admired 

 from generation to generation ! And how 

 many other radiant resiny sun trees are here 

 and higher up, libocedrus, Douglas spruce, 

 silver fir, sequoia. How rich our inheritance 

 in these blessed mountains, the tree pastures 

 into which our eyes are turned! 



[ 70] 



