CHAPTER IX. 



ALDER OB OWLER. 



Light quivering on some river brink, 

 "Where stoops the panting hart to drink, 

 On rocky hank, in glade, or dale, 

 The alder tells her simple tale. 



MOEALISTS have said tliat all trees have characters analogous 

 to those of men. Behold in me, said a widely spreading 

 alder, a vegetable type of one whose facility of disposition 

 enables him to dwell contentedly wherever he sojourns. 

 Such am I, an alder, growing either beside a highland 

 stream, or in quiet hedgerows, in woods, or shading public 



