10 IN THE ACADIAN LAND. 



depend. " Many are called but few are chosen," 

 that is the universal law of all life. The 

 straightest saplings with no more limbs than 

 are needed will get their tops into the sunshine 

 and their roots into good ground, and become 

 great trees, smooth and clean. The closer to- 

 gether they grow the straighter they will be, 

 and less knots and limbs. Scrubby specimens 

 beginning life there, are doomed to decline and 

 meet an early death. In the forests, all are shel- 

 tered from the force of the wind ; they stand by 

 each other right loyally. But out on the open 

 barren here and there a wind-wafted pine seed 

 germinates and slowly grows. There is no 

 lack of sunshine, there is no serious competition ; 

 but the soil is not friendly : they are underfed. 

 The roots grapple with obstructing rocks, fierce 

 winds wrestle with the sturdy branches and 

 resisting trunk. In the long run of a centuiy 

 such a tree comes to plainly show the marks of 

 its struggles with the elements. The grain of 

 the wood is close, and hard, and twisted. Where 

 the limbs join the trunk there are encircling 

 bosses formed of wood wherein the grain or fibre 

 is wound round and round, in sturdy self-defence 

 of the winds ; for on these branches are the 

 lungs, and thereby hangs the life. With this 

 understanding about them, these dead scrub* 



