TREES AT LEISURE 



meets the winter winds with 

 serene courage; and likewise 

 clad is the cottonwood, that 

 guardian of western rivers, on 

 which, though it be ragged and 

 unkempt, the traveler's eye 

 lingers lovingly. 



Another water-loving tree, 

 which revels in swamps, is the 

 pepperidge ; extravagant in hori- 

 zontal branches and twigs when 

 young, it stands gaunt and bare 

 when old, its main trunk looking 

 like a decrepit mast with a few 

 dilapidated yardarms hanging 

 to it. The tamaracks are its 

 neighbors; in summer graceful 

 lacy cones, they now flaunt 

 their scant, jaundiced spires 

 against the blue sky, uncon- 

 scious of the sad picture they 

 make in their coniferally unnat- 

 ural nakedness. 



