46 SIGNS AND SEASONS 



their scaffoldings and carry them higher as the tem- 

 ple mounts; nothing superfluous, no waste of time 

 or energy, the one purpose to cleave the empyrean 

 steadily held to. 



At the Centennial fair I saw a section of a pine 

 from Canada that was eight feet in diameter, and 

 that had been growing, I have forgotten how many 

 centuries. But this was only a sapling beside the 

 redwoods of California, one of which would carry 

 several such trees in his belt. 



In the absence of the pine, the hemlock is a 

 graceful and noble tree. In primitive woods it 

 shoots up in the same manner, drawing the ladder 

 up after it, and attains an altitude of nearly or 

 quite a hundred feet. It is the poor man's pine, 

 and destined to humbler uses than its lordlier 

 brother. It follows the pine like a servitor, keep- 

 ing on higher and more rocky ground, and going 

 up the minor branch valleys when the pine follows 

 only the main or mother stream. As an ornamental 

 tree it is very pleasing, and deserves to be cultivated 

 more than it is. It is a great favorite with the 

 sylvan folk, too. The ruffed grouse prefer it to 

 the pine; it is better shelter in winter, and its 

 buds are edible. The red squirrel has found out 

 the seeds in its cones, and they are an important 

 part of his winter stores. Some of the rarer war- 

 blers, too, like the Blackburnian and the blue yel- 

 low-back, I never find except among the hemlocks. 

 The older ornithologists, Audubon and Wilson, 

 named a " hemlock warbler " also, but this bird 



