14 IRature StuMes in Berf^sbire- 



ground from which to behold the glories of mid- 

 summer as they pass by. 



For consider the maples themselves. It is a most 

 distinguished group which surrounds our home. The 

 house itself stands full and clear in the sunshine, ac- 

 cessible to light and air on every side. But within a 

 rod of its walls, like a great green colonnade about 

 this domestic basilica, these thrifty maples lift their 

 engirdling foliage. On two sides a double row of 

 them forms a cloister around the little lawn, under 

 whose leafy roof one may walk at noonday with 

 scarcely a patch of sunlight falling upon him. These 

 two trees at the corner of the colonnade are con- 

 spicuous in this regard. They have grown like twin 

 brothers. Their inner boughs are linked and twined 

 together. They are healthy and affluent and strong. 

 As one lies on the turf beneath them and tries to find 

 the sky through their branches, he sees layer after 

 layer of spreading leaves, like an ample thatch, a pro- 

 tection alike from sun and from rain. All day one 

 may sit under this roof of green, and be perfectly se- 

 cure from any prying ray of sunshine ; and when the 

 rain falls it is sometimes hours before the drip from 

 leaf to leaf reaches the turf and moistens the grass 

 about these sturdy trunks. But under their broad 

 branches the breeze moves, unstayed and free, tem- 

 pering the fierce heat of July noons, and bringing 

 renewal of life with the midsummer twilight. 



It moves through the foliage, too, with a voice all 

 its own. It may not be that every tree speaks with 



