6 THE TREE FOLK 



a miracle as the most devout could wish for to throw at 

 the head of a sceptic. 



It is another manifestation of that something we call 

 life, individualized life, the animate soul of a thing, that 

 power within your body which, reacting upon its envi- 

 ronment, grows your body and keeps it in repair, substi- 

 tuting new for old, never forgetting anything, not even 

 that scar on your thumb you acquired when a child and 

 which helps to identify you as you yourself, now, after 

 fifty years. What a marvel it all is! 



If you and I were to sit at the same table three times 

 a day and eat of the same food for a hundred years we 

 would never look like each other. No. Our souls are in- 

 dependent and selfish, each jealously guarding its own 

 identity. The souls of the trees are the same, each bring- 

 ing forth fruit after its kind. 



IDEALS seem to be held tenaciously by trees. In other 

 words, each tree thinks of itself as belonging to a 

 certain family. That family has its own traditions, and 

 habits of thought. Each member of that family cherishes 

 the family ideal in its heart and does its best to live up 

 to that ideal. In the fell clutch of circumstance, thwarted 

 by unfortunate conditions, maimed by its enemies, 

 crowded by its neighbors, lashed by storms, struck by 

 lightning, the spirit of the tree is never broken. As 

 long as the tree lives it is loyal to the highest ideals of 



