8 THE TREE FOLK 



man ancestors will have their way, and Willie, who was 

 foreordained a fatted calf, will surely grow up as an ox 

 of the stall. The stupid ideals of that sub-conscious 

 Weightman soul will not have it otherwise. 



By way of contrast, the Vinals just naturally run thin. 

 Ida may diet and lie abed in the morning, and dose 

 herself with anti-lean elixir indefinitely, but to the end 

 of her days she will be a tall, thin, sharp-featured, lan- 

 tern-jawed Vinal. That is the family tradition. Why 

 kick against the pricks? 



The trees are like that (Plate II). The Lombardy Pop- 

 lars (i) are spare; the Apple trees (2) are rotund. No 

 member of the apple family would dare to think of 

 being higher than it is wide. A Poplar of such propor- 

 tions would die of chagrin. All the young Cedars (4) are 

 thin like the Poplars, but pointed in the head like a 

 candle flame. The Pines (5) are pointed also but they 

 come broader. The Maples (7) are egg-shaped, small end 

 uppermost. The Ashes (10) hold the same standard of 

 shape but with the smaller end below, as in a normal 

 human head. The Oaks (11), red or white, left to them- 

 selves in a pasture, assume the shape of a great hay cock 

 of green balanced on a sturdy central post of brown. The 

 Elms (15) believe in the hemispherical shape, but carry 

 it tipped to one side rather jauntily, like the Palms (8), 

 who are a more long-legged race. The Hickories (6) stand 

 with the Poplars for towering mass, but are inclmed to 



