Speaker 1: Section ten of Birds and All Nature, Volume seven, number two,
Speaker 1: February nineteen hundred, recorded for LibriVox dot org by Diana Schmidt.
Speaker 1: The Country, The Country from a Club of one by A. P.
Speaker 1: Russell L. H. D. Trees. Think of them in the
Speaker 1: United States. Thirty six varieties of oak, thirty four of pine,
Speaker 1: nine of fur, five of spruce, four of hemlock, two
Speaker 1: of per simon, twelve of ash, eighteen of willow, nine
Speaker 1: of poplar. And I don't know how many of the
Speaker 1: beautiful beach. I once counted over thirty different varieties of
Speaker 1: trees in the space of one acre, and the leaves,
Speaker 1: their number, their individuality, their variety of shape, and in
Speaker 1: the acres of space that those of one great tree
Speaker 1: would cover if spread out and laid together in the autumn,
Speaker 1: to watch them fall, how slowly, how rapidly, Yet they
Speaker 1: say nobody ever saw one of them. Let go Homer's
Speaker 1: comparison to the lives of men, how fine better than
Speaker 1: Lucy Anne's to the bubbles. I remember very well one
Speaker 1: October day in Ohio. It was long ago, in life's
Speaker 1: morning March, when my bosom was young. I liked to
Speaker 1: quote from that poem of Campbell's it is incomparable of
Speaker 1: its kind a delightful tramp Elderberry's the great Boer have
Speaker 1: held the elder in such pleasant reverence for the multitude
Speaker 1: of its virtues, that he is said to have taken
Speaker 1: off his hat whenever he passed it. Grapes, paws, Papa's
Speaker 1: Nature's custard, spicewood sassafras, hickory nuts, nearly a primeval forest,
Speaker 1: vines reminding one of Brazilian creepers, trees that were respectable saplings.
Speaker 1: When Columbus landed the dead roots of an iron wood
Speaker 1: so like a monster as to startle behemoth, I thought
Speaker 1: of he moveth his tail like a cedar, thistledown, diffused
Speaker 1: like small vices, every seed hath wings here and there
Speaker 1: a jay or a woodpecker. Grape Vines fantastically running over
Speaker 1: the tops of tall bushes, grouping deformities, and any one
Speaker 1: of which, if an artist drew, it would be called
Speaker 1: an exaggeration worse than anything of dorays. Trees swaying and
Speaker 1: bowing to one another like stilted clowns. In Nature's After
Speaker 1: Piece of the Seasons, trees incorporated sycamore and elm maple
Speaker 1: and hickory, modifying and partaking each other's nature, resembling so
Speaker 1: much as to appear one tree a jolly gray squirrel,
Speaker 1: hopping from limb to limb like a robin, swinging like
Speaker 1: an oriole, flying along the limb like a weaver's shuttle,
Speaker 1: scared away at length by a scudding cloud of pigeons,
Speaker 1: just brushing the tallest tree tops, as if kissing an
Speaker 1: annual farewell clover sorrel penny royal, a drink of cider
Speaker 1: from a bit of broken crockery. Does he not drink
Speaker 1: more sweetly that takes his beverage in an earthen vessel,
Speaker 1: than he that looks and searches into his golden chalices
Speaker 1: for fear of poison, and sleeps in armor, and trusts nobody,
Speaker 1: and does not trust God for his safety. All is fair,
Speaker 1: all is glad, from grass to sun, not a melancholy day.
Speaker 1: Keith's poem on Autumn comes to mind, and crabs welcome,
Speaker 1: pure thoughts, Welcome ye silent groves, these guests, these courts.
Speaker 1: My soul most dearly loves Indian summer. Balzac's comparison to
Speaker 1: ripe womanhood, The significant worn walk round the mean man's field,
Speaker 1: its crooked outline impressively striking. All in all, a white
Speaker 1: day memory of it supplies these notes. They might be
Speaker 1: expanded into an essay the Country. The country, though the
Speaker 1: man who would truly relish and enjoy it must be
Speaker 1: previously furnished with a large and various stock of ideas,
Speaker 1: which he must be capable of turning over in his
Speaker 1: own mind, of comparing there, worrying, and contemplating upon with pleasure.
Speaker 1: He must so thoroughly have seen the world as to
Speaker 1: cure him of being over fond of it. And he
Speaker 1: must have so much good sense and virtue in his
Speaker 1: own heart as to prevent him from being disgusted with
Speaker 1: his own reflections, or uneasy in his own company. Alas
Speaker 1: and of Section ten, this recording is in the public domain.