306 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



the nest of the insect whose name she bears. Their mutual 

 office is that of piercing the wood with innumerable roots, 

 resembling the finest hair, which act like wedges, and de- 

 stroy the adhesion of the fibres ; the bough in consequence 

 soon becomes vegetable mould, serving thereby to enrich 

 the parent tree, and to promote the growth of grass and 

 flowers. 



Thus, as I once heard a naturalist remark to his com- 

 panion, it is the office of vegetable life to transform dead 

 matter into organized living bodies. Such is the simple 

 and beautiful circle of nature ever changing, ever new. 

 Everything lives, flourishes, and decays ; even the noblest 

 tree must fail, but nothing is lost : the great principle of 

 life only changes its form, the destruction of one genera- 

 tion is the vivification of another. 



Behold in me a plain and homely personage, responded 

 a calm, decided voice, from out an elder bush. I know 

 nothing either of pedigree or romance, and no poet has 

 ever thought me deserving even of a ditty; neither do I 



