VIII 



SEEDLINGS AND SHOOTS 



"Who does his duty, is a question 

 Too complex to be solved by me ; 

 But he, I venture the suggestion. 

 Does part of his who plants a tree." 



— Selected. 



Did you ever stroll slowly through a forest set 

 with broad-leaved trees and evergreens, and 

 wonder how the trees happened thus to mingle 

 together? Here stands a group of queenly 

 maples; yonder is a tattered, white-gleaming 

 sycamore and a great willow; 'there an elm 

 neighbors with a graceful birch; just beyond a 

 towering cottonwood and a shag-bark hickory 

 jostle a poor little juniper bush. How did they 

 all come to be growing just here? If they could 

 suddenly be given voice, what wonderful tales 

 we should hear of miraculous adventures and 

 narrow escapes in seed-time and sowing, of 

 youthful quarrels and envious neighbors, happy 

 chances and lucky falls, and the final ' ' survival 

 of the fittest"! Indeed, a large part of these 

 tales are written on trunk and bough and branch. 



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