LAYING OUT OF GROUNDS. 197 



which, by some fault in the planting, or some inherent 

 defect in the tree, has made little or no growth these 

 last six years, and which every August a full month 

 before the earliest of its companions takes on a 

 hectic flush of color, which it carries, with the buoy- 

 ancy of a consumptive, all through the autumn. This 

 accident of coloring gives an individuality and in- 

 terest to the tree which distinguishes it from all its 

 stalwart and thrifty fellows. 



I do not think a town park can ever safely be 

 mated with a trotting course ; either the trotting or 

 the park will go under. It is not intended to speak 

 against trottiug-courses, or greased pigs, or the climb- 

 ing of greased poles ; but the arena for these sports 

 is not usually such a one as to entice a quiet family 

 man to a park drive. Quiet family men are not, to 

 be sure, very plentiful, and are not much considered 

 nowadays ; they still subsist, however, in sufficient 

 numbers to give a stale flavor of respectability to many 

 of our growing provincial towns, and to shape, to a 

 certain degree, the municipal improvments. The love 

 for fast trotters and for trotting matches is so decided 

 an American taste that a good trotting-course will 

 become a cherished institution in every town of a 

 dozen or fifteen thousand inhabitants. Indeed, I 

 think its establishment may be regarded as a kind of 

 necessary safety-valve, through which unusual speed 



