28 UPON THE WOOD ROAD 



and no two spots are arranged on the same 

 plan. Spruces were most prominent, with 

 birches and maples to soften their severity, 

 lighten their sombreness, and give a needed 

 touch of grace. The mixture was felicitous. 

 The white stems of the birch, " most shy and 

 ladylike of trees," stood out finely against 

 the dark spruces, just then decked with fresh 

 tips to every twig, which gave somehow a 

 rich velvety appearance to the foliage. The 

 picturesque irregularity of the birch-trunks 

 was very noticeable. Hardly one was straight. 

 Some leaned to one side, as if it had been 

 hard to get the delicate branches in between 

 the stiff and angular boughs of the spruces 

 among which they grew ; others had turned 

 this way and that, in wavering uncertainty, 

 as if they had been unable to decide which 

 way they would go, till they were full grown, 

 and the indecisions of youth were perpetu- 

 ated in a crooked trunk. 



There was no appearance of indecision, 

 past or present, about the spruces. Each 

 stem stood as straight as a fresh West Point 

 cadet. There was never an instant's doubt 

 in what direction one of those sturdy trees 



