TREES AT LEISURE 



ing its slender height protect 

 ingly above the homestead, or 

 above the memory of one, its 

 great twisted branches making- 

 picturesque any scene, however 

 homely, its maze of twigs still 

 holding its large spirally rolled 

 pods, which will in due time 

 skate away over icy snowdrifts 

 and plant their seeds far from 

 the parent tree ; the black locust, 

 less picturesque, seemingly con- 

 scious of its nakedness, retain- 

 ing a scanty garment of little 

 rustling pods, until spring shall 

 again bring to it its exquisitely 

 wrought leaf mantle; the horse- 

 chestnut, painting itself in broad 

 style against the pearly sky, 

 its sparse, bud-tipped, clumsy 

 twigs appearing like knobbed 

 antennas put forth to test the 

 safety of the neighborhood; the 



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