TREES AT LEISURE 



their mighty heads singly above 

 the forest level or group them- 

 selves in green-black masses, 

 they make strong the composi- 

 tion of the winter picture. 

 Nothing brings out the per- 

 spective of the snow-covered 

 hills like a clump of great hem- 

 locks in the foreground; and the 

 tassels of the pine are never 

 so beautiful as when tossed in 

 defiance against the stormy win- 

 ter sky. Brave tree folk are 

 these conifers of ours, whether 

 their span of life extends over 

 three centuries, like our pines, 

 or twenty, like the redwoods. 

 They give us a wide sense of 

 the earth as an abiding-place. 



On some winter mornings 

 even the most careless of mortals 

 must pay admiring tribute to 

 the trees, for again are they 



[49] 



