256 A Walk from 



While on this line of reflection, I will mention a 

 case of monumental tree-planting in New England, 

 not very widely known there. A small town, in the 

 heart of Massachusetts, was stirred to the liveliest 

 emotion, with all the rest in her borders, by the Decla- 

 ration of Independence in 1776. Different communi- 

 ties expressed their sense of the importance of this event 

 in different ways, most of which were noisy and excited. 

 But the good people of this rural parish came together, 

 and, at a happy suggestion from some one of their 

 number, agreed to spend the day in planting trees to 

 commemorate the momentous transaction. They forth- 

 with set to work, young and old, and planted first a 

 double row on each side of the walk from the main 

 road up " The Green " to their church door ; then a 

 row on each side of the public highway passing through 

 the village, for nearly a mile in each direction. There 

 was a blessed day's work for them, their children and 

 children's children. Every hand that wielded a spade, 

 or held up a treelet until its roots were covered with 

 earth, has long since lost its cunning ; but the tall, 

 green monuments they erected to the memory of the 

 most momentous day in American history, stand in 

 unbroken ranks, the glory of the village. 



Although America will never equal England, pro- 

 bably, in compact and picturesque "plantations," or 



