THE SUCCESSION OF FOREST TREES. 



EVERY man is entitled to come to Cattle-show, 

 even a transcendentalist ; l and for my part I am 

 more interested in the men than in the cattle. I wish 

 to see once more those old familiar faces, whose names 

 I do not know, which for me represent the Middle 

 sex 2 country, and come as near being indigenous to 

 the soil as a white man can ; the men who are not 

 above their business, whose coats are not too black, 

 whose shoes do not shine very much, who never wear 

 gloves to conceal their hands. It is true, there are 

 some queer specimens of humanity attracted to our 

 festival, but all are welcome. I am pretty sure to 

 meet once more that weak-minded and whimsical fel 

 low, generally weak-bodied too, who prefers a crooked 

 stick for a cane ; perfectly useless, you would say, 

 only bizarre, fit for a cabinet, like a petrified snake. 

 A ram s horn would be as convenient, and is yet more 

 curiously twisted. He brings that much indulged bit 

 of the country with him, from some town s end or 

 other, and introduces it to Concord groves, as if he 

 had promised it so much sometime. So some, it seems 



1 The name transcendentalist was given to Emerson, Thoreau, 

 and others of similar ways of thinking. 



2 Concord is in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and this 

 paper was an address read to the Middlesex Agricultural So 

 ciety at the fair commonly called a Cattle-show. 



