406 



THE CEDAR OF LEBANON. 



thing more valuable in their eyes lay hid beneath 

 the moist mould. They thought of lace, or of 

 diamonds, and began to thrust their fingers into 

 the soil. But our poor traveller implored them 

 so earnestly to spare his tree, and talked to them 

 so eloquently of all that we read in the Bible of 

 the Cedar of Lebanon, telling them of David's 

 house and Solomon's temple, that the men's hearts 

 vv^ere softened, and they suffered the young Cedar 

 to remain undisturbed in its strange dwelling. 

 From thence it was carried to Paris, and planted 

 most carefully in the Jardin des Plantes. A large 

 tile was set against it as a protection and a shade, 

 and its name was written in Latin and stuck in 

 front, to tell all the world that it was something 

 new and precious. The soil was good and the 

 tree grew, grew till it no longer needed the shelter 

 of the tile, nor the dignified protection of the 

 Latin inscription ; grew till it was taller than its 

 kind protector the traveller ; grew till it could 

 give shelter to a nurse and her child, tired of 

 walking about in the pleasant gardens, and glad of 

 the coolness of the thick dark branches. The 

 Cedar grew larger and larger, and became the ' 

 noblest tree there. All the birds of the gar- 

 den could have assembled in its branches. All the 

 lions and tigers, and apes and bears, and panthers 

 and elephants of the great menagerie close at 

 hand, could have lain at ease under its shade. It 

 became the tree of all the trees in the wide gar- 

 den that the people loved the best ; there, each 

 Thursday, when the gardens were open to all the 

 city, the blind people from their asylum used to 

 ask to be brought under the Cedar ; there they 

 would stand together and measure its great trunk, 



