JANUARY 9 



for the beautiful old people whom the aged 

 pines resemble. Buffeted by winds, pruned 

 by storm, scarred by lightnings, it may be, 

 or worn by neglect or cruelty, how full of 

 meaning the pines become ! No tree, unless 

 it may be an oak, becomes as human as does 

 a pine which has lived for generations in the 

 intimate companionship of man. When the 

 trunks have grown grey and resinous, and 

 the boughs are mute witnesses to the struggles 

 of the soul of the tree, they take on the same 

 beauty which shines in the faces of men and 

 women who have grown old in the quest of 

 high ideals, and in the service of noble en- 

 deavours. They know so much, the ancient 

 trees, whose breath is for the healing of the 

 nations, that when the wind, who is the oldest 

 of the master musicians, begins his hymnings 

 among the dark leafage, there is no mood of 

 the soul which may not find therein an inter- 

 pretative melody, and no sorrow of the heart 

 to which they refuse to bring a message of 

 peace. 



Against a stockade of pines it were well 

 to plant in, irregularly, other cone-bearers 

 spruce firs, cedars, arbor vita, hemlocks, 



