12 THE TREE FOLK 



demned all colors but gray; the clergy favor black broad- 

 cloth. Certain families have the seal habit, when it comes 

 to furs; while the new rich prefer something more luxu- 

 riant, like monkey fur. Some women always wear 

 stripes; some men only pin-head checks. 



The Tree Folk are like that, only more so (Plates IV 

 and V). 



The soft Pines (i) always wear velvet. Their silhou- 

 ettes against the sky have a softness at their edges like 

 the lustre upon the folds of the velvet robes of Doges. 

 The Cedars (2) are fur clad and very handsome, espe- 

 cially in the winter when all their neighbors are naked 

 and shivering with the cold. The Birches (3) wear shim- 

 mering lace, half veiling their silvery limbs. The Poplars 

 (4) affect a coarse woven woolen goods, tweeds, very 

 substantial and distinguished. The Elms (5) wear 

 shawls, thrown gracefully over their broad shoulders, 

 and the shawls have fringes that sway and ripple in the 

 wind. The Maples (6) wear watered silks with brilliant 

 patterns. There is always a certain vivacity, a sparkling 

 quality, in a Maple. Then there are several families that 

 wear print goods, like the Pears (7), with a snappy, almost 

 impudent, freedom. The gnarled Oaks — the poets and 

 story tellers for centuries have called them gnarled — 

 are more or less gnarled in their clothing (8). Gnarled 

 means knotted. All the oaks are dappled with knots of 

 foliage. Sometimes, as in our northern White Oaks, the 



