THE TREE THAT TRIED TO GROW 219 



make a bed for a little feathery birch seed which 

 came flying along one day. 



The sun shone softly through the forest trees; the 

 summer rain pattered through the leaves upon it; 

 and the seed felt wide awake and full of life. So 

 it sent a little, pale-green stem up into the air, and 

 a little white root down into the shallow bed of earth. 

 But you would have been surprised to see how 

 much the root found to feed upon in only a 

 handful of dirt. 



Yes, indeed ! And it sucked and sucked away with 

 its little hungry mouths, till the pale-green stem 

 became a small brown tree, and the roots grew tough 

 and hard. 



So, after a great many years, there stood a tall 

 tree as big around as your body, growing right upon 

 a large rock, with its big roots striking into the 

 ground on all sides of the rock, like a queer sort of 

 wooden cage. 



Now, I do not believe there was ever a boy in 

 this world who tried as hard to grow into a wise, 

 or a rich or a good man, as this birch seed did to 

 grow into a tree, that did not become what he 

 wished to be. And I don't think anybody who 

 hears the story of the birch tree, growing in 

 the woods of Wendell, need ever give up to any 

 sort of difficulty in this way, and say: "I can't." 

 Only try as hard as the tree did, and you can 

 do everything. 



