CHAPTER II 

 THE WASHINGTON ELM 



Of our swift passage through this scenery 

 Of life and death more durable than we, 

 What landmark so congenial as a tree 

 Repeating its green legend every spring, 

 And with a yearly ring 

 Recording the fair seasons as they flee, 

 Type of our brief but still renewed mortality? 



Lowell 



THERE is probably no tree dearer 

 to the hearts of the people of Massa- 

 chusetts, or even of the country at 

 large, than the Washington Elm at Cam- 

 bridge. If it is true that the Arabs of the 

 desert tell their children the story of 

 Washington, the father of his country, it is 

 equally true that travelers from every lead- 

 ing nation of the world have looked with 

 reverence upon this spreading elm, and pon- 

 dered long as they read the inscription on 

 the monument at its base. Artists have 

 painted it, poets have sung its praises, and 

 most historians who have written of the 



