THE RESPONSIVENESS OF 

 THE PEAR 



WHAT HAS BEEN DONE Is BUT THE 



BEGINNING 



A CORRESPONDENT who is seemingly; 

 prone to personify inanimate objects 

 writes to ask which tree among our culti- 

 vated ones I regard as the most "human." 



And then, without awaiting reply, my corre- 

 spondent supplies the answer: 



"The pear, of course," he says with full assur- 

 ance. 



But when he goes on to state the reasons for 

 this decision, I am not quite sure that his argu- 

 ment carries conviction. 



Perhaps the most striking bit of analogy that 

 he offers is the fact that a pear tree sometimes 

 fails to reach maturity until it is from fifteen to 

 twenty years old, coupled with the cognate fact 

 that the tree may continue to thrive for three 

 score years and ten or even longer. 



He cites a good many other analogies, or sup- 

 posed analogies, to be sure the fact that the 



153 



