44 SIGNS AND SEASONS 



Theodore Parker said that a tree that talked like 

 Emerson's pine ought to be cut down; but if the 

 pine were to find a tongue, I should sooner expect 

 to hear the Emersonian dialect from it than almost 

 any other. It would be pretty high up, certainly, 

 and go over the heads of most of the other trees. 

 It were sure to be pointed, though the point few 

 could see. And it would not be garrulous and loud- 

 mouthed, though it might talk on and on. Whether 

 it would preach or not is a question, but I have no 

 doubt it would be a fragrant healing gospel if it 

 did. I think its sentences would be short ones 

 with long pauses between them, and that they 

 would sprout out of the subject independently and 

 not connect or interlock very much. There would 

 be breaks and chasms or maybe some darkness be- 

 tween the lines, but I should expect from it a lofty, 

 cheerful, and all-the-year-round philosophy. The 

 temptation to be oracular would no doubt be great, 

 and could be more readily overlooked in this tree 

 than in any other. Then, the pine being the oldest 

 tree, great wisdom and penetration might be ex- 

 pected of it. 



Though Emerson's pine boasts 



" My garden is the cloven rock, 

 And my manure the snow; 

 And drifting sand-heaps feed my stock, 

 In summer's scorching glow," 



yet the great white pine loves a strong deep soil. 

 How it throve along our river bottom and pointed 

 out the best land to the early settlers! Kemnants 



