34 THE HORSE CHESTNUT. 



duty in protecting the young shoot from the frosts 

 and nipping winds of February; and though the 

 air be motionless, others are still dropping all 

 around, proving that these integuments are not 

 passively scattered by the wind, but cast off by the 

 living, active, energy of the awakened bud. This 

 is the time beyond all others to wander in the 

 woodsj and to be reminded by the promise afford- 

 ed by the bursting bud, that we live not by the 

 bread which we eat, nor by the raiment that we 

 wear, but by the fostering Providence of God. It 

 is He that commanded the tender leaf to lie curi- 

 ously folded in its gummy cell, till He should see 

 fit to call it forth — it is He that is strewing around 

 us the out-worn clothing of the now vigorous 

 shoot — the delicate blade of wheat is, in like man- 

 ner, under His providential care, progressing at 

 the same time, more slowly, but not less surely, 

 towards the full ear, which is to be strengthened 

 by His rain, and ripened by His sun ; and in every 

 one of the millions of puny grains which He will 

 enable us to gather into our barns. He is, with un- 

 erring wisdom, storing up whatever may be most 

 conducive to our health and temporal welfare, with 

 the further end more especially in view of remind- 

 ing us, that " man doth not live by bread alone, 

 but by every word that proceedeth out of the 

 mouth of God." 



Although we may, if we choose, learn this 

 lesson, at all seasons from every leaf and every 

 fragment of a leaf that comes in our way, yet its 

 truth never more decidedly thrusts itself on our 

 notice than when an opportunity is presented to 

 us of watching the unfolding buds of the Horse 

 Chestnut. On this account, even if it possessed no 



