WAYSIDE TREES. 



18 5 



rails. Certainly for no praiseworthy motive was 

 it allowed to stand ; but it does, and so to-day it 

 casts a shadow in which half a regiment might 

 gather. Not strangely at all, every man, woman, 

 and child in the neighborhood loves the old tree, 

 and points to it with pride. Were it struck by 

 lightning, it would have a public funeral. And 

 yet I have not found that any of my neighbors, 

 except those very near the town, have planted 

 even a single wayside tree. On the contrary, a 

 noble row of catalpas was felled not long since 

 for fence-posts ! 



A wayside tree means, to the pedestrian, 

 something more than a mere island of shade in 

 an ocean of sunshine. A stately tree has many 

 lovers, and hosts of birds are sure to crowd its 

 branches. Such a tree then becomes the Mecca 

 whereat the rambler spends the hours of hot 

 high noon, not only pleasurably but profitably 

 for I hold that a bird can not be watched for long 

 without gain. Is it nothing, as one rests in the 

 shade after a long tramp, to have a wood-thrush 

 sing to him ? Is it not a lesson to the weak- 

 hearted to hear the restless red-eye's ceaseless 

 song ? The perverse grumbler, has he a trace 

 of reason, will, at least secretly, own that much 

 of which he complains might be far worse, after 

 listening to the singing of a bird perched in a 

 wayside tree. Though shorn of so much that 



