TO HUMAN BEINGS 



DAYS IN MY GARDEN 



favourites, or for flowers as a whole, I often feel that 

 trees are more companionable and exercise a greater 

 sway over us : they are more individual. For though 

 there is doubtless a difference in each dandelion or 

 buttercup, we must look for it, while we have no 

 difficulty in recognising many differences in each oak 

 or beech, and the fact that many of them remind us 

 of people we know makes them seem more human. 

 THE LIKENESS OF TREES We love the great, bold, stout-hearted oak, 

 genuine and strong all through, as we love the 

 same qualities in man, while there is always some- 

 thing in the elegant grace and rounded limbs of the 

 beech that is womanly, noble, dignified and refined. 

 The clean, white freshness of the young birch, with 

 its pretty airy branches and delicate refinement 

 the maidens of the forest, the real girlhood of the 

 land. The rugged stem and spreading boughs of the 

 giant elm, storm-snapped and brittle ; some men- 

 fine men cannot stand the sudden storm of strain 

 and fall before it. The soft subtle silver-rippled 

 willow, that twists and bends, to rise again she is 

 attractive, beautiful, but not to be trusted ! 



The clean hard lithe ash, that bends but will not 



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