186 A PITCH-PINE MEDITATION. 



the sandy knolls of Massachusetts, the 

 sturdy, uncompromising, independent, eco- 

 nomical, indefatigable, all-enduring spirit of 

 Puritanism will be worthily represented in 

 this its sometime thriving-place. 



For the pitch-pine's noblest qualities are, 

 after all, not artistic, but moral. Such un- 

 alterable contentment, such hardiness and 

 persistency, are enough to put the stoutest 

 of us to shame. Once give it root, and no 

 sterility of soil can discourage it. Every- 

 thing else may succumb, but it it and 

 the gray birch will make shift to live. 

 Like the resin that exudes from it, having 

 once taken hold, it has no thought of let- 

 ting go. It is never " planted by the riv- 

 ers of water," but all the same its leaf does 

 not wither. No summer so hot and dry, no 

 winter so cold and wet, but it keeps its per- 

 ennial green. What cannot be done in one 

 year may, perchance, be accomplished in 

 three or four. It spends several seasons in 

 ripening its fruit. Think of an apple-tree 

 thus patient ! 



The pitch-pine is beautiful to look at, 

 and " profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 

 for correction, for instruction in righteous- 



