CHAPTER VIII 



WILD APPLE TREES 



Coming back to my pastures after long ab- 

 sence I am always surprised and often otherwise 

 moved at the changes which I can then clearly see 

 have taken place in them. Had I frequented 

 them day by day these would never have ap- 

 peared to me. Just as in the countenances of 

 one's best friends, seen often, there seem to be 

 no mutations and we need to think definitely of 

 some past period and then to compare the im- 

 pression with the present one to see that the child 

 is growing up or the old man growing older, so 

 it is with the face of the earth in familiar spots. 

 Young growth comes little by little, shoulders 

 bow day by day in the aged, yet we do not see it 

 when we dwell constantly with them. It is only 

 after long absence that these things suddenly pre- 

 sented shock us with grief in the one case or 

 touch us with pleasure in the other. After a 

 summer's absence, you find baby shrubs grown 

 to youth and youthful trees putting on a greater 



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