How Animals Talk 



light splendor, was the crown of the old pine to 

 give direction. Its very silence at such an hour 

 was like the Angelus ringing. To halt beneath it, 

 as one often did unconsciously, was to feel the 

 spell of its age, its serenity, its peace; while 

 harmonious thoughts came or went attuned to the 

 low melody of the winds, crooning their vesper 

 song far up among its green leaves. And, morn- 

 ing or midday or evening, to look up at the pine's 

 lofty crown, which had tossed in the free winds 

 that bore Pilgrim and Puritan westward with 

 their immortal dream of freedom, was to be bound 

 with stronger ties of loyalty to the fathers of my 

 native state, men of vision and imagination as 

 well as of stern courage, who heard the pine 

 booming out its psalm to the gale and instantly 

 adopted it as their new symbol, stamping it on 

 their coins or emblazoning it on their banners 

 as an emblem of liberty. Never another symbol, 

 whether dragon or eagle or lion, had so much maj- 

 esty, or was so worthy of free men. The remem- 

 brance of it in any national crisis or call to duty 

 sets the American heart beating to the rhythm 

 of Whittier's" Pine-Tree": 



Lift again the stately emblem on the Bay State's rusted 



shield, 

 Give to northern winds the Pine-Tree on our banner's 



tattered field. 



[288] 



