THE TREES OF AMERICA. 43 



sucli was the vigor of the old tree that they have become apparently as firmly 

 united as at first. I have mentioned these facts somewhat carefully, in order 

 that those who have fine trees which have been injured may not despair of their 

 restoration. When Dr. Warren first knew the Great Elm, seventy years since, 

 it bore, he says, " strong marks of decrepitude and approaching dissolution. 

 The interior of the trunk was rotten, and much of it had disappeared. The 

 aperture was from two to three feet in length, and about a foot in breadth." 



Could the old tree but find a voice, how many tales of human passion, of joy 

 and sorrow, might it not reveal to us ! It has listened to the love vows of the 

 children of the forest, and the death song of the warrior. It stood calmly by 

 when old Matoonas fell by the hands of his own people. They brought him 

 here " bound with cords," and his betrayer was allowed by the pale-faces to be 

 his murderer. Here, too, Woodbridge and Phillips fought a duel for the favor 

 of a young lady whose name is buried in the past, which caused the death of 

 both of them, — one being fatally wounded in the combat, and the other dying 

 soon after from remorse. The old tree has also, no doubt, been made the confi- 

 dant of many a deed of crime which it never told to the police of the good city. 

 Here, too, have lovers' vows been plighted, and sad farewells spoken, 



" such as press 

 The life from out young hearts." 



As to us, while drawing the picture of the patriarch, the human crowd, which 

 hurried by, seemed like the waters of a mighty river which rush on their course 

 to return no more forever, so have the tides of life for centuries flowed past it, 

 to be swallowed up and forgotten in the ocean of eternity. 



The Mayor of Boston, in 1854, Hon. J. V. C. Smith, erected a permanent 

 iron fence around the ancient tree to aid in its preservation. We are also 

 indebted to the same gentleman for the introduction of the beautiful gray squir- 

 rels, which are seen sporting among the branches of the trees on the Common, 

 with all the freedom and liveliness displayed in their native haunts. Dr. Smith 

 deserves the thanks of every lover of nature for this. All the young people, at 

 least, will never cease to be grateful to him for this evidence of his kindly 



