BOTANICAL: THE UPPER CLASSES. 175 



book all along the path of life from boyhood to old age ? 

 and have I not imprinted on its sacred covers, " Title- 

 deeds " ? one day, I say, on going to hear what my pet 

 cherry tree had to say to me, imagine my regret at find- 

 ing it gone ! 



Being on friendly terms with the authorities of Fish- 

 mongers' Hall, by the front of which my pet had been 

 thriving, I asked if they knew what had become of it, 

 when, to my astonishment, I found it had been pulled up 

 to prevent the roots splitting the granite upon which it 

 grew. 



Then came the voice from that dead cherry tree, a 

 root out of a very dry ground, saying 



"How little I really needed for my daily wants! I 

 longed for liberty, and by patient continuance in well-doing 

 I found it. I have finished the work I came to do ; for 

 I have given you an illustration of contentedness under 

 the hardest of circumstances, and I have taught you the 

 lesson under the greatest of trials, to look upwards for 

 the supply of all your necessities, which is sure to come 

 if you will but continue looking. 



"Learn from my little life the truth of the saying 



that 



* Incessant pains the end obtains.* 



Without aid from above I could not have grown, had 

 I tried ever so hard ; but the shower came, and then, like 

 the true * Plant of renown,' I grew ; and you have seen 

 in me an illustration of those greatest of all mysteries, 

 life and growth, and what an almost supernatural power 

 belongs to each. Had I continued undisturbed, the 

 strongest of rocks would have given way under my 

 invisible roots. 



"You have received a nature-lesson from me, and 

 more than one, showing chiefly that, as Nature keeps the 



