i68 



AROUND AN OLD HOMESTEAD. 



the upper parts, and of a deep velvet green toward the 

 root." Somehow I always feel as if I were actually in 

 a forest if there are only a few beeches. I used to 

 enjoy in boyhood days swinging upon their great arms, 

 the tips of which often would sweep the very earth, 

 and to scramble amongst their branches, like a squirrel, 

 after the nuts; yet I think nowadays it would be one 

 of the hardest trees in the world to climb. 



What is it that possesses men to carve their initials 

 upon every suitable tree? Is it merely to record the 

 fact of their presence on that spot, or a desire that 

 their names shall be writ there for eternity? Or does 

 the smoothness of the bark attract them? Whatever 

 the reason, certain it is that he is an extraordinary man 

 who with a jack-knife in his pocket will pass a good 

 beech without first trying the blade, and leaving at 

 least a part of his name as a witness to posterity of 

 his having passed that way. 



'T was not an uncommon propensity, it seems, cen- 

 turies ago. Even as far back as the old Roman days 

 do we find mention of this singular trait in human 

 nature as being a characteristic of the Latin race. 

 Hamerton quotes Vergil on the custom. In the tenth 

 eclogue Gallus says : 



" Certum est In silvis, inter spelaea ferarum 

 Malle pati, tenerisque meos incidere amores 

 Arboribus : crescent illas ; crescetis, amores." 



("My mind is made up to prefer to suffer in the for- 

 ests, among the dens of wild beasts, and to cut my loves 

 upon the young trees : these will grow ; ye will grow, too. 



