XXVI 



BROOKSIDE WILLOWS 



HAVE you a meadow brook from whose margin 

 all the willows have been shorn? Come to Willow 

 Creek and we will make you glad. Take away 

 with you an armful of branches cut in assorted 

 lengths and trimmed. You need but to drive 

 these into the moist bank of your stream with the 

 flat of your ax : next year they will surprise you 

 with the abundance and length of their lithe 

 branches. In a few years they will have restored 

 your willow "fringe." In summer you may sit in 

 their shade and admire their glossy foliage. When 

 the branches are bare the wind will convert each 

 tree into a great harp of a thousand strings upon 

 which to play the song of winter. 



Willow Creek is well named. Though it wan- 

 ders through many a mile of pasture and meadow 

 land, it is never anything but a creek, and it 

 has always its willows. Sometimes they are mighty 

 trees and stand off in dignified seclusion from the 

 border. But the cattle come down to the creek to 

 drink, and after long, satisfactory draughts of the 

 clean water they rest under the willows and chew 

 their cuds after their ruminating fashion. Whether 

 theirs be the cud of sweet or bitter fancy will 

 depend largely upon whether they have nibbled 

 boneset and wormwood or devoted their attention 



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