292 OLD PLYMOUTH TRAILS 



wisdom IS justified of her children and prophets 

 of storm have honor, even in their own country. 



Most of all woodland trees, the young pines 

 seemed to love this dry, light snow, holding up 

 every limb and every cluster of green needles 

 to receive it, stretching them upward as if in 

 yearning for it. I think it is quite true that in 

 the December cold, when there is a feel of snow 

 in the air, the limbs of young pines do bend a 

 little more toward the vertical. I know that the 

 upward pointing needles do press a little closer 

 to the stems on which they grow and thus more 

 readily tangle and hold the ice crystals that fall 

 upon them. The tender young shoots of this 

 year's growth are clothed with these close-set 

 needles for a space of a foot or more, averaging 

 ten groups of five needles to the inch, all pointing 

 upward to the very tip, where they press around 

 the buds for next year's growth in a close-in- 

 verted cone. They themselves keep the cold 

 winds in a good measure from this young bark 

 and these prized buds. But they do better than 

 that. When the snow begins to fall they catch 

 and hold every flake that touches them, skewering 

 the interstices of the crystals on their needle 



