GETTING AC^AINTED WITH THE TREES 



This fine shagbark was kind to the camera- 

 man, for some of its lower branches drooped 

 and hung down close enough to the "bars" 

 of the rail fence to permit the photographic 

 eye to be turned on them. Then came the 

 tantalizing wait for stillness ! I have frequently 

 found that a wind, absolutely unnoticeable be- 

 fore, became obtrusively strong just when the 

 critical moment arrived, and I have fancied 

 that the lightly hung leaflets I have waited 

 upon fairly shook with merriment as they 

 received the gentle zephyr, imperceptible to 

 my heated brow, but vigorous enough to keep 

 them moving. Often, too — indeed nearly always 

 — I have found that after exhausting my all 

 too scanty stock of patience, and making an 

 "exposure" in despair, the errant blossoms 

 and leaflets would settle down into perfect 

 immobility, as if to say, "There! don't be 

 cross — we'll behave," when it was too late. 



But the shagbark at last was good to me, 

 and I could leave with the comfortable feeling 

 that I was carrying away a little bit of nature's 

 special work, a memorandum of her rather 

 private processes of fruit- making, without injur- 



174 



