252 THE ADVENTURES OF A NATURE GUIDE 



Some trees like wet places, others dry places; 

 some cold climates, others hot climates. 



The pollination of trees, their evolutionary his- 

 tory, their geological records, ever are a delight. 



Every flower that blooms, like every old tree, 

 has an adventurous life, a brief and stirring biog- 

 raphy. So, too, has every piece of red sand- 

 stone, and every great cobblestone in the lowlands. 

 The red stone may once have been a piece of dark 

 granite on top of the snowy peak. Or the cobble- 

 stone may have been torn from a cliff and shaped 

 by a glacier that carried it for a thousand miles or 

 more. Every handful of soil has a story stranger 

 than any produced in fairyland. 



The above plan can be adjusted and adapted to 

 almost any subject under discussion. 



To have made friends with one tree is better than 

 to have learned the names of many trees. To 

 have shared its experiences through the seasons, to 

 have watched the play of sunlight through the 

 branches, the storms bursting over its head, the 

 rain deepening the colour of its bark — this is to feel 

 the universal kinship of nature whether the tree be 

 in a city park, is a lone tree, or one of a noble 

 forest. 



Realizing that people lose so much through their 

 erroneous beliefs, I am trying so to feature the 

 wilderness world that children will early adjust 

 their lives to its splendid influences. 



Altitude is helpful. 



