IN THE OPEN 



parted company, and now the beach was up among 

 the spruce and balsams, such vicissitudes are there 

 in the fortunes of all. The ancient waters had 

 left their mark, that however high the rock might 

 go, it should none the less speak of the mother 

 sea. Again, the traces of glaciation on ledges and 

 boulders appeal to the imagination with a peculiar 

 eloquence. What a mighty cosmic plane was that 

 which smoothed these granite ledges! It planed 

 off New England as if it were a knot on a plank, 

 and scattered over it the dust and chips of the 

 workshop. These ledges serve as a fairly accurate 

 compass, and are at least more reliable than the 

 lichens on the trees. 



Some men have an eye for trees and an inborn 

 sympathy with these rooted giants, as if the same 

 sap ran in their own veins. To them trees have a 

 personality quite as animals have, and, to be sure, 

 there are " characters " among trees. I knew a 

 solitary yellow pine which towered in the land- 

 scape, the last of its race. Its vast columnar trunk 

 seemed to loom and expand as one approached. 

 Always there was distant music in the boughs 

 above, a noble strain descending from the clouds. 

 Its song was more majestic than that of any other 



6 



