THIRD WEEK] 



December 



329 



to be seen clinging to the rocky shores of Fundy, every 

 branch and twig curved toward the land; showing the 

 years of battling with constant gales and blizzards. Like 

 giant weather-vanes they stand, and, though there is no 

 elasticity in their limbs and they are gnarled and scarred, 

 yet our hearts warm in admiration of their decades of 



patient watching beside the troubled waters. For years 

 to come they will defy every blast the storm god can send 

 against them, until, one wild day, when the soil has grown 

 scanty around the roots of one of the weakest, it will shiver 

 and tremble at some terrific onslaught of wind and sleet; 

 it will fold its branches closer about it and, like the Indian 



