LIKE A TREE 



stead of having his experience with the little hills 

 of Palestine and their little trees, David had lived 

 here in California and had seen the sweep of our 

 plains . ajajl ;the lift of our mountains and had 

 lived' lot: : a- little under the majestic presence of 

 , qur trees. Would he still have written "A man 

 ' is like. a tree?" Would he have dared to write 

 as we Californians would certainly write our 

 Psalm "Blessed is the man who is like a big 

 tree!" 



It is John Muir at once scientist and poet 

 who said that to live a little while under our great 

 trees was in itself an education ; that "to become 

 acquainted" in his phrase "with a great tree 

 is an event in a man's life;" and I suppose, for 

 the very same reason, that he felt instinctively 

 poetic soul that he was that the tree, like the 

 man, may be said to have a character of its own, 

 that speaks to our own character the soul of the 

 tree speaking to the soul of the man. 



On the train, coming up from Southern Cali- 

 fornia some weeks ago, I happened to overhear 

 a lad who was grumbling that his dearest desire 

 had been denied him. He had been planning 

 for years that when he came to California he 

 would see a big tree; and now here he was in 

 California, nearing the end of his journey, and 

 through some mistake of his mother they were 

 on the wrong train, and there was not time to 

 make a change and go the other route, so he 



