JANUARY 1 1 



among the spruce buds for their dinner, and 

 it may be a pine's good fortune to become 

 host to an owl or two, whose wide, soft flight 

 through the wintry dusk will be a thing to 

 remember. 



Near the evergreens I would plant as many 

 birches as I could find foothold for white, 

 grey, brown, shining, clustering, growing 

 singly. How the trunks take for themselves 

 the tints of the snow, the earth and the rocks ! 

 How the branches symbolise the inconstant 

 winds with the thoughtful movement of their 

 delicate traceries. No other tree gives quite 

 the idea of purity that belongs to a white birch. 

 If I were a painter and wished to paint the per- 

 fect flower of womanhood in Our Lady's face, I 

 would place her in the shadow of white birches. 

 Their slender swaying branches would shield 

 the head of the little Child upon her knee, 

 and He would try to catch the flickering beams 

 of the sun which fell between them with the 

 hands that were to be held out in love to 

 all the world. 



A beech shall grow in one corner of my 

 garden, the corner I shall call my sound garden. 

 Why not ? The ear has as good a right to 



