226 ARBOR DAY 



struck them; that no worm had gnawed at the 

 root, or cattle at the trunk; that their branches were 

 not broken, nor their leaves failing from drought. 

 We found them all standing in their uprightness. 

 They lifted up their heads toward heaven, and sent 

 down to us from all their boughs a leafy whisper 

 of recognition and affection. Blessed be the dew 

 that cools their evening leaves, and the rains that 

 quench their daily thirst! May the storm be as 

 merciful to them when in winter it roars through 

 their branches, as is a harper to his harp! Let the 

 snow lie lightly on their boughs, and long hence be 

 the summer that shall find no leaves to clothe these 

 nobles of the pasture! 



First in our regard, as it is in the whole nobility 

 of trees, stands the white elm, no less esteemed 

 because it is an American tree, known abroad only 

 by importation, and never seen in all its magnifi- 

 cence, except in our own valleys. The old oaks of 

 England are very excellent in their way, gnarled 

 and rugged. The elm has strength as significant 

 as they, and a grace, a royalty, that leaves the oak 

 like a boor in comparison. Had the elm been an 

 English tree, and had Chaucer seen and loved and 

 sung it; had Shakespeare and every English poet 

 hung some garlands upon it, it would have lifted 

 up its head now, not only the noblest of all grow- 

 ing things, but enshrined in a thousand rich asso- 

 ciations of history and literature. 



