126 LEAVES FROM THE BOOK OF NATURE. 



better content are the Greenlanders ; for, when their last 

 mouthful of meat, and their last drop of train-oil are gone, 

 they dig and rob the little, provident beetle of his care- 

 fully hoarded treasure, and, by its aid, manage to live until 

 another season. It is thus that we see every where the 

 beautiful and close bonds of love connecting even those 

 parts of creation which seem to be without sense or volun- 

 tary motion, humble subjects of their masters, the elements, 

 and which yet respond to the action of those mysterious 

 powers, that rule, under God, in nature. The flower opens 

 its gorgeous chalice, filled with rich honey, to the tiny 

 insect ; the insect, in return, carries the fructifying pollen 

 to the flower's distant mate, and thus propagates it anew. 

 The herbs of the field send forth their luxuriant tufts 

 of leaves for the browsing cattle, and sheep and oxen 

 carry the seed in their hides from meadow to meadow. 

 The trees themselves, planted by stones that birds have 

 dropped, grow and flourish until " they are strong, and the 

 height thereof reaches unto heaven, and the beasts of the 

 field have shadow under it, and the fowls of heaven dwell 

 in the boughs thereof." 



When neither quadruped nor insect can be coaxed or 

 forced to transport the young seeds that wish to see the 

 world, they sometimes launch forth on their own account, 

 and trust to a gentle breeze or a light current of air, 

 rising from the heated surface of the earth. It is true, 

 nature has given them wings to fly with, such as man 

 never yet was skilful enough to devise for his own use. 

 The maple our maple, I mean has genuine little wings, 

 with which it flies merrily about in its early days ; others, 



