UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 



crop. They will continue to crop the cone beneath it 

 as long as fresh shoots are put out, but as the life 

 of the tree is more and more drawn off from this 

 mound at the base, and transferred to the rising top, 

 the base will soon cease to grow and will slowly die. 

 So that in a few years more the tree will assume the 

 shape of an hourglass, the upper half flourishing, 

 the lower haK at a standstill or slowly going back. 

 And in a few years more the hourglass form will have 

 faded; only a part of the lower half will remain, and 

 so the tree, after a struggle of many years, \a\\ come 

 into shape and drop its fruit to the cattle that were 

 so bent on destroying it, and who, by eating this 

 fruit, will plant more thorn-trees all over the land- 

 scape. Not all species of trees possess this power of 

 strugghng successfully against their enemies. The 

 linden, for instance, when cropped by the cattle, re- 

 sorts to no such tactics as do the apple and the red- 

 thorn. In its simplicity it pushes out new shoots 

 each year to be cropped off by the cattle, and it 

 never gets above their reach. The push of life is 

 there, but it is along right lines. There is no ma- 

 noeuvring for advantage, as with the thorn. 



The red-thorn in the pasture, struggling to be- 

 come a tree, is a good type of life. Accident and 

 destiny enter into its problem in due proportion. 

 Accidents are analogous to the grazing cattle, and 

 destiny to the inherent nature of the tree. All life 

 is certainly more or less a struggle against opposing 



260 



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