5o 
THE GUIDE TO NATURE 
the eye was thrown into the color 
scheme by nature to vivify the white. 
In certain lights a rosy flush m ight be 
seen, a sort of radiant spirit shining 
from within. 
Blue jays came to visit the two 
birches, and the red squirrel sprang 
from vibrant branches, adding blue and 
red as bright colors for the moment. 
The wayfarer sitting to rest for a mo- 
ment stretched himself beneath one of 
the birches and exclaimed. “How beau- 
tiful !” 
One day last week, some evil spirit 
in human form, fostered by Satan, came 
THE DESECRATION OF THE TWO BIRCHES. 
to the trees. With a sharp knife he 
girdled the delicate white bark of the 
birches and tore it away in great white 
strips, leaving the brown bark staring 
out in helpless protest to the world. 
The destruction of beauty does not so 
much distress me as does the symbol of 
civilized man’s depravity now boldly 
placed on permanent record. 
One day many years ago, in the great 
forest in the north. I reached up to get 
a birch bark cup from a tree near a 
camp on an Indian trail. One of the 
Indians said, “Wait. Me go back." He 
went further away from the trail and 
brought the bark from a tree which 
from that point was invisible. I said, 
“You did not want me to take the 
bark from a tree near the trail.” And 
he replied, “Kawin ! nishishin.” (No! 
too pretty.) 
Somebody on the road to Stamford 
and calling himself civilized has done 
what a wild Indian declined to do in 
the primitive forest. Boy Scouts are 
given the freedom of my place. I hope 
that some one of them may be able to 
trace the miscreant. I feel that the act 
was not one of malice towards me per- 
sonally. My neighbors on the West- 
over Road are all good neighbors. 
Some years ago I sought to beautify 
a mile of public highway from Merri- 
brooke toward Stamford, and two of 
my men spent two days in setting out 
some twenty-five hundred little pine 
trees along both sides of the way. 
When the pine trees had grown enough 
to be sightly youngsters, people in au- 
tomobiles came, dug them up and car- 
ried them away. The only pines that 
are now left are a few that were 
injured by cattle. Whenever any of 
these develop tops which are attrac- 
tive, aliens come along the road about 
holiday time and saw off the tops to be 
sold in town as Christmas trees. None 
of these people would think of beauti- 
fying the public highway themselves, 
but when some one else has done it 
they know how to dispose of the trees. 
In a free country every one is free to 
do what he likes to any one else. The 
loss of the pine trees is, on the whole, 
not so serious a matter as is the dese- 
cration of the birches. The pines are 
now mostly gone and out of sight, but 
for the next hundred years the two 
birches will exhibit the signs of man’s 
depravity. 
Higganum. 
Winding down the road we come 
To the ancient town of Higganum, 
Pent between the stream and hill 
Xear the ugly, clattering mill — 
Strung along a single street. 
Broad and shady, with houses neat — 
A pleasant place for one to come, 
The Nutmeg town of Higganum! 
— Don C. Seitz. 
The Purple Bank 
As to the railroad track it climbed, 
’Twould most prosaic be. 
Were it not that a royal purple flower, 
That found it in a favored hour, 
Had made it fair to see — • 
A spot most fair to see. 
— Emma Peirce. 
