Live Oaks 141 
in separate holes he has prepared in the 
bark of trees. You may see tree trunks 
completely peppered by his industry. This 
thrift—if such it be—he shares with no other 
member of his family. 
From all this it will be seen that the groves 
are far from being unpeopled; so that one 
has not to rely upon the imagination for 
society, though it is certainly a useful ad- 
junct. Unimaginative persons derive so 
little from what they see; over-imaginative 
ones make much of what they do not see. 
Nature, far from being fixed, is plastic, con- 
forming to every mould of temperament. 
How some would sentimentalise here—gushy 
people whose springs are all on the surface 
and quicklyrun off; while others compute, with 
cold and calculating eye, the cords of wood, 
the cost of cutting, and the profit. Interest 
more than anything else, sharpens the eye; 
temperament is a glass, rose-coloured or blue 
as the case may be. What do children see 
here and what do old people see?—not the 
same grove surely. A psychologist would 
give much to know what the Indian perceives 
—so slender is the savage’s stock of associa- 
tions, so relatively insignificant the inherent 
mass of ideas upon which his impressions fall. 
