OUTDOORS 



among all this greenery. Tall and sombre- 

 colored for perhaps fifteen feet from the 

 ground, they begin to shed their rusty red- 

 dish bark as they climb higher, and soon ap- 

 pear in a beautiful creamy white that shines 

 like marble among the surrounding trees. 

 And numerous slender and pallid branches 

 are thrown out from the main trunk, adorned 

 with many leaves. The whole effect is sculpt- 

 uresque in the highest sense. No splotch or 

 blot mars the marble-like contour of many of 

 these woodland Apollos. They seem hardly 

 ever ruffled by the winds that sweep across. 

 Birds flit in their branches and along their 

 symmetrical outlines the sunlight falls, weav- 

 ing many a lacelike bit of golden tapestry 

 between the shadows of the leaves. 



A slender, feminine quality is perceptible 

 in most of the sycamores, but occasionally 

 some sturdier one stands like a young Greek 

 stripped for a race, with arms outstretched 

 and long locks ruffling in the breeze. There 

 is a caste and distinction among forest-trees, 

 and the sycamore is one of the stateliest and 

 most aristocratic. 



The lone ash stands like a fighter, its close- 

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