Thg Old Applg Trgg's 
 
 WHH-MURRAY 
 
 Tistiot tooLate to Seek a NewerV/orl.d 
 
 ■»? 
 
CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Alex T. Brown 
 
Cornell University Library 
 PS 2459.M9804 
 
 The old apple tree's Easter: or A tale 
 
 3 1924 022 430 437 
 
The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022430437 
 
I HAD COME BACK TO THE OLD HOME. 
 
Complete Works 
 
 OF 
 
 iA£. H. H. TVIVRRKV. 
 
 National EditioQ, 
 
 VOL. VII. 
 
 Cft^ Old i\w\^ Creeps Caster 
 
 OR 
 
 n Cak or Dature's Resurrection. 
 
 «M 
 
 HARTFORD, CONN. . 
 
 The Case, LocKwood A Brainard Co. Print. 
 
 1900. 
 
A'7f7x4^ 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1900, 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON MURRAY, 
 
 GUILFORD, CONK. 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 
 
THE 
 OLD APPLE TREE'S 
 EASTER. 
 
 ||FTER years of absence I 
 had come back to the 
 old home and once more 
 lighted the fire in the 
 huge fireplace, and through the long 
 winter evenings and long into the 
 nights of cold starlight and colder 
 storm had piled it high with logs 
 
full of sap and gums that make heat 
 and flame, and enjoyed the crackle 
 and roar of it with the zest of a boy 
 and the mood of a man ripened by 
 years and thought to sense the gen- 
 uine comfort of real and homely 
 things. And the old fireplace had 
 told me many tales — tales of the old- 
 time folk that were before me, and of 
 whose blood I am ; memorial tales of 
 their loves and hates, joys and griefs, 
 life and death; of their tears and 
 laughter, their wit and humor, their 
 merry-making and frolics, their jokes 
 and fun — all of which it had seen and 
 
f- 
 m 
 ■* 
 o 
 o 
 
 h 
 D 
 O 
 
 h 
 
 o 
 u 
 
 z 
 
 H 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 K 
 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 H 
 
 (fl 
 U 
 
 S 
 o 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 Q 
 J 
 U 
 HI 
 
 h 
 
 < 
 
 H 
 CO 
 
 w 
 
 u 
 a 
 a 
 a 
 o 
 o 
 
heard, helped and shared. And I had 
 written them all down as things pleas- 
 ant and precious to me and mine, and 
 the written pages, filled with old-time 
 folklore, lay on the table by my side, 
 a record and memorial of those that 
 had been and were not, whom I had 
 never seen, and yet knew; for out of 
 them all had I not come? and were 
 they not all, wise and foolish, weak 
 and strong, wicked and good, living 
 again in me ? 
 
 It was a night cold with a cold- 
 ness which seldom comes to us of 
 the Connecticut coast, a coldness 
 
"We shall not all sleep, but we 
 shall all be changed." 
 
 ST. PAUL. 
 
that pierced through wood and pene- 
 trated stone as a double-edged knife 
 enters the flesh when murder drives 
 it through fibre and bone. The 
 covering of the old house cracked, 
 and the pond roared and thundered 
 as the horrible cold pried great 
 seams and fissures through the thick 
 blue ice that burdened its level 
 water. It was a glacial night, and 
 he who opened door thrust his face 
 into the centre of a glacier. 
 
 There was a log in the shed 
 close by the door of the room in 
 which I sat — the trunk of an old- 
 
SAPLESS AS A MONUMENT. 
 
" I am the resurrection, and the 
 life: he that beheveth in me, though 
 he were dead, yet shall he live." 
 
 JESUS. 
 
time apple tree, ringed with twice a 
 hundred years of growth, soHd as 
 ebony and heavy as stone. Even as 
 a boy I remember it as a mighty 
 trunk, seasoned on its own root, 
 sapless as a monument, barkless and 
 shiny as a pillar of bone. The hard- 
 est woods of the world have I cut, 
 but never a harder. A six-pound 
 axe, tempered to perfection and 
 swung with the full length and 
 strength of me, started so small a 
 chip that I marveled, and as I looked 
 at the edge of the axe and then at 
 the laughingly small proof of the 
 
blow, I said, "Am I myself, or has 
 some little fellow who never swung 
 head of heft and edge of steel got 
 inside my jacket this morning ? " 
 
 This mighty log I ended up, 
 straining at the task with all my 
 strength, edged it through the door, 
 rolled it on to the hearthstone, and 
 pried it up with a sturdy sapling of 
 hill growth — my huge hickory poker 
 — one end at a time upon the strong 
 irons. The old fireplace opened its 
 mouth wide and roared its welcome 
 as it felt its weight, and the seasoned 
 wood at the touch of living brands 
 
" Lazarus, Come forth ! " 
 
 JESUS. 
 
burst into a mighty sheet of pure, 
 sparkless yellow flame, 
 
 "The old fireplace has been 
 telling you tales, I hear," said the 
 log; "tales of the ancient folk and 
 years long gone. And it is fit it 
 should, for men fail fast and women 
 fade like flowers, and the young in 
 the whirl of happy life hear little or 
 forget. But the living should remem- 
 ber that the dead lived once and live 
 still, and hate to be forgotten. For 
 to the loving heart and the large 
 mind, oblivion is bitter as wormwood 
 to the mouth of a babe, who screams 
 
*'And he that was dead came 
 forth, bound hand and foot with 
 grave-clothes." 
 
 GOSPEL NARRATIVE. 
 
at the taste; while the hope of 
 remembrance is sweet as fruit to 
 child, or flower to bee. 
 
 " But I can tell you tales of the 
 old folk, too, and of those older than 
 they, for I saw the white come in 
 and the red go out; and of myself 
 will I tell you first, for only so will 
 you learn of them and their ways. 
 So listen while I tell you the things 
 that have been and will be. 
 
 " I sprang from a seed that was 
 grown over sea, and a little girl, fair 
 even as yours, whom you love as 
 blood loveth blood like itself, only 
 
purer and stronger, brought it hither. 
 A big Kentish farmer gave one to 
 the sweet Httle lass as she stood on 
 the wharf holding tightly to her 
 father's strong hand, saying, 'Take 
 this little seed and plant it on your 
 father's farm nigh the house he will 
 build, that the new England may 
 remember the old.' He was a huge 
 strong man, with gray eyes and big 
 shaggy eyebrows, and a vast yellow 
 beard; and as he placed the seed that 
 was mother to me, in the little girl's 
 hand, he lifted her up in his mighty 
 arms and kissed her red cheek with 
 
"As we have borne the image 
 of the earthy, we shall also bear the 
 image of the heavenly." 
 
 ST. PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS. 
 
tears in his eyes. Grace Norton was 
 her name; and she it was that, first 
 of all maidens, was married in Guil- 
 ford town, whither her father, Thomas 
 Norton, came, and whose warm, 
 brown marshes, with the strong 
 healthy salt smell at the roots of 
 their growth, run down in amber and 
 gold to the beaches and the sea. 
 
 "One warm spring morning, 
 when the wonder of growing leaves, 
 and of soft green colors was on the 
 great woods, Grace Norton took me 
 forth in her little plump hand for the 
 planting. With her walked a child 
 
"If the dead rise not, then is 
 not Christ raised." 
 
 ST. PAUL. 
 
of the old red race, lithe as a willow 
 slip, with hair and eyes like the 
 night, and skin of the color of old 
 wine when the sun shines through it. 
 The two digged with a stick in the 
 mellow soil and covered the seed 
 with warm earth, and with their little 
 hands scattered leaves over the spot, 
 and rolled stones around it in a ring 
 to mark the planting. 
 
 '* And when their task was done 
 and they looked around, lo! they 
 beheld a woman of the old race 
 standing nigh, looking steadfastly at 
 them, as the old look at the young 
 
 II 
 
\ 
 
with thoughts that go backward and 
 go onward both. She was old and 
 wise, the prophetess of the tribe — 
 a witch, the newcomers called her; 
 for she knew the virtue of herbs, the 
 potency of roots, of bloodroot, of 
 crane's-bill, of sassafras, of spikenard; 
 and, above all, she had the seeing 
 eye and foresaw the future, and knew 
 the issue of things from their begin- 
 ning. She it was who stood by, 
 leaning on her staff of ghost wood, 
 and she said : 
 
 " 'You have planted a seed, little 
 ones, that grew over sea. The white 
 
 12 
 
**0 death, where is thy sting? 
 O grave, where is thy victory?" 
 
 ST. PAUL. 
 
and the red have planted it, and the 
 forces of sunrise and sunset shall 
 foster its growth.' 
 
 " And then she waved her staff 
 above the fresh mold that covered 
 the seed, and chanted a chant. *Thou 
 shalt live. Thou shalt grow. Flower 
 and fruit shall be thine. Birds shall 
 nest in thy branches, lay eggs and 
 hatch young. No snake shall disturb 
 them in their nesting, neither hawk 
 nor owl shall vex them. Thou shalt 
 live long and feed many. I, of many 
 years, of the seeing eye, the witch 
 of Totoket, have said it!' 
 
 «3 
 
y^;,^,/rn/^/''' ^ 
 
 WHO HAST MADE TREES THY COMRADES, AND THY HOME IN FORESTS. 
 
" So was the seed, brought from 
 over sea that was the beginning of 
 me, planted by little Grace Norton. 
 It was a true seed, and well sown, 
 as the issue proved. For the sun 
 shone, the rains fell, and the Spirit 
 of Life quickened the seed, the 
 germ within became vital and I 
 was! Oh, thou of years and of 
 knowledge, who hast seen and felt 
 and thought much; thou dweller 
 in cities, thou ranger of woods, 
 whose head is as white as my ashes 
 will be; dost thou know, canst thou 
 tell more than I of life in its 
 
 14 
 
beginning, whether it be of plant or 
 beast or human?" 
 
 And I, after silence and much 
 pondering, said: 
 
 "Old log, I know no more 
 than thou of life in its beginning." 
 
 "Thou hast well said," answered 
 the log. "Thou hast come at least 
 to one certainty. One fact, therefore, 
 hast thou mastered. Master one 
 other and thou shalt be wise as 
 those who by wisdom are ready for 
 death. Five times thy years have I 
 lived. Do years count? Does their 
 coming bring aught, or their going 
 
 IS 
 
"For this corruptible must put 
 on incorruption, and this mortal 
 must put on immortality." 
 
 ST. PAUL 
 
add aught to what is more precious 
 than rubies? It may be. When I 
 am not, ask my ashes whither I am, 
 what I am, and what death brought 
 to me." 
 
 For a space there was silence. 
 Suddenly the cypress platform that 
 ran around the old house cracked 
 like a pistol shot. An unlocked 
 shutter, high up in the gable, 
 slammed against the sash, while 
 an icy blast struck the northern 
 side of the old house so fierce a 
 blow, that the shingles shivered 
 and the tenants of the oaken 
 
 i6 
 
"Now is Christ risen from the 
 dead, and become the first fruits of 
 them that slept." 
 
 ST. PAUL. 
 
posts creaked in their age-seasoned 
 mortises. 
 
 These noises I heard as one 
 hears without hearing, for all my 
 mind was centered on what the log 
 had been saying. But no light came 
 to my darkness, and I said: 
 
 "Years do, indeed, bring much 
 in their coming and leave much at 
 their going, to him who loves 
 learning, and five times my years 
 should mean much; but, what death 
 can bring of good or of ill to a log 
 is beyond knowing." 
 
 "Wait! Let me tell you of my 
 
 17 
 
life," said the log, "for life interprets 
 death, and translates the mystery of 
 a hieroglyph to the vernacular of 
 sequence. Forever and forever we 
 shall be as we are, nor shall change 
 come to us, save the change or the 
 changes that are natural to growth. 
 Life is splendor. The position that 
 defines it is meridian. Declension is 
 loss, ascension is gain. As a starting 
 point, death and birth are one. 
 What is sunset to one hemisphere is 
 sunrise to another. From two points 
 of view come two interpretations; 
 but the splendor is the same. From 
 
 i8 
 
"And Enoch walked with God 
 and he was not, for God took him." 
 
 GENESIS. 
 
the standpoint of ignorance, death is 
 sunset. From the standpoint of 
 knowledge, it is sunrise. 
 
 " How well I remember my first 
 blooming! I had not known until 
 then what I was. How strangely 
 I felt! I did not know what it 
 meant — the sweet forces moving in 
 trunk and bough and twig. And 
 when my buds began to form and 
 swell, I was half frightened. But 
 after a little space, through all my 
 fibres there ran a sweet prophetic 
 sense, that I, who had been but wood, 
 was about to become fruit! 
 
 19 
 
"Oh, thou man of whitened 
 head, thou who hast made trees thy 
 comrades and thy home in forests, 
 who knowest each leaf and bloom 
 of tree and shrub as lover knows 
 face and form of his beloved, thou 
 knowest that it was the spirit of all 
 blessed life and growth that was 
 moving within me; that I was as a 
 city captured and taken by the 
 benign, prolific parental energy that 
 makes all worlds beautiful with a 
 beauty that repeats itself through 
 God, in deathless round and course 
 for ever and ever. And when, after 
 
m 
 o 
 
 K 
 o 
 
 Q 
 O 
 
 X 
 
 a 
 
 D 
 
 o 
 
 DC 
 h 
 
 B, 
 
 
 < 
 
 o 
 
 z 
 o 
 
 M 
 
 U 
 
 X 
 h 
 
 •z 
 w 
 
 X 
 
a night of tremulous expectancy, the 
 warm sun came up through odorous 
 mist that lay a vast perfume on field 
 and wood, and suddenly shone full 
 upon me and every swelling bud on 
 every twig of me burst into white 
 and pink expression, and made me 
 lovely above all trees and sweet with 
 a delicate fragrance beyond all words 
 — thou knowest — thou knowest!" 
 
 Here silence — silence deep and 
 sweet — filled room and me with its 
 sweet sense of joy unutterable; for 
 was I not standing at that white line 
 which marks with fadeless light the 
 
"I go to prepare a place for 
 you, that where I am there may ye 
 be also." 
 
 JESUS. 
 
■x 
 
birth of things and of those maternal 
 forces that clothe the fields with 
 verdure, the hills with pride, the 
 earth with men, and heaven with the 
 spirits of men made perfect? And 
 through the silence, and as the 
 sweetest part of it, as purest note of 
 flute or flute-like voice, breathed into 
 stillness as fit soul into fittest body, 
 the old-time statement, old and holy : 
 
 "In the beginning God created 
 the heavens and the earth." 
 
 "Then did I know myself," 
 continued the log; "know for what 
 I was created. That I was made to 
 
beautify, sweeten and feed the world, 
 and that I was the expression of 
 forces that are deathless, because 
 needed, and should move on forever 
 in the course and order of endless 
 things. From that hour I welcomed 
 birds to my branches and bees to 
 my blossoms, and all panting things 
 in the hot summer days to my 
 shade. The strong came and ate of 
 my fruit and were made stronger. 
 Children feasted and thrived on the 
 mellow globes that fell from my 
 branches. The weak and the sick 
 ate of me and were refreshed and 
 
 23 
 
"For everything that exists is, 
 in a manner, the seed of that which 
 will be." 
 
 MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS. 
 
strengthened, and the juices of my 
 fruit, pungent and richly flavored, 
 crowned the feasts of your ancestors 
 with gladness and cheer. 
 
 "For two hundred years I fed 
 and feasted the men and women of 
 your name and blood, and the 
 stranger within their gates, and the 
 hungry wanderer that passed me by, 
 ate of my life and fared on rejoicing. 
 Not a year did I fail them — not a 
 season was I barren. I was so 
 happy to serve. I was so glad to 
 be of use. It was a joy to feel that 
 I was a component part of a wise 
 
 24 
 
NOT A YEAR DID I FAIL, THEM -NOT A SEASON WAS I BARREN. 
 
order — a unit in the long column of 
 benevolent forces, whose total sums 
 up the worth of nature and the 
 goodness of nature's God." 
 
 "Alas! alas! old tree!" I cried. 
 *'Alas! that thou art dead! That 
 never again will thy blossoms beautify 
 the garden or thy fruit feed mankind ! 
 And to think that I, who owe so 
 much to thee, should have felled thee 
 to the earth and haled thee to these 
 fatal flames! Alas! that my hand, 
 even mine, should have lighted thy 
 funeral fire and brought thee so 
 quickly to thy end! For even now 
 
 25 
 
"'Tis not too late to seek a 
 newer world." 
 
 THE GREEK. 
 
thy solidness trembles to crumbling, 
 and in a few moments there will of 
 thee be nothing left, save a bed of 
 embers and, after a little, a trace 
 of whitened ash, which the mighty 
 draught of the roaring chimney 
 above thee will whirl upward into 
 the icy gale." 
 
 "Say not so!" exclaimed the 
 log. "Thou art my friend in need, 
 and hence God's angel. I was dead 
 solidity; I am becoming a living 
 force. I was a lifeless body; I am 
 becoming a formative puissance, I 
 had come to the end of a benevolent 
 
 26 
 
H^ 
 
 H 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 ^^B^^^^^BBB^BBHH^rijj^^Bj 
 
 K^^H^r^^ ^^H^^l 
 
 
 ^^^^^^H 
 
 ^^IHBB 
 
 H^^^^Hh^^^^BI^^S^^^^Sh^ 
 
 BCTafe'.y,-^^ ylHH| 
 
 
 ^^^^^^^1 
 
 ^^^^B^l 
 
 ^^^^^■^^^^^^^BbBhs^^^BS 
 
 BBBaK^tfy X /'-iy*^^ 
 
 
 ^^^^^^^1 
 
 ^^■^^^H 
 
 f^H^P^^H^H 
 
 
 
 ^^H 
 
 H^H 
 
 H^H^M^Lh 
 
 ■■■^^■S^^mHJJ^H 
 
 WS^BIB^S^^ 
 
 ' l^^^l 
 
 I^^^H 
 
 ^^^H 
 
 ^hb^^^HmBHSI^sbBI 
 
 BjroB^^^^^ 
 
 ^HnHH 
 
 ^^^^^1 
 
 ^^^^H 
 
 ^HBHwKj^^^^^^BnBr^^^MJl^^^l 
 
 IKBiSlHcfcfty 
 
 T^^H 
 
 I^H^^^^^^H 
 
 ^^^^^^^^1 
 
 IMMW.^BIkii1*^ M. 'WW 
 
 ^B^p-'- "' / 
 
 4^ 
 
 H^^^l 
 
 ^^^H 
 
 ^^^H^^^^B^^^^^^Hi 
 
 B^|^>,rr . 
 
 
 ^^^^^1 
 
 ^^^^H 
 
 WBt 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 ■ 
 
 ^^w^^gl 
 
 H^^HI£E*^~- 
 
 
 n 
 
 ^1 
 
 ^^^Ih^HhIHHb^^I 
 
 
 
 ^^^^H 
 
 ^^^^H 
 
 ^^^^^^BnB^^HHI^^^^^I 
 
 ^^loKl^'^^^ittiiMiMMf^Kit 
 
 i"* 
 
 ^S^^^^l 
 
 ^^l^^^l 
 
 ^^h^^bR^I 
 
 ^EBI^^^^r'^ ' - ' S 
 
 jf'" ^>t.j?iaBB 
 
 i^^l 
 
 I^H 
 
 ^Hf^^l^B^^P^t^l 
 
 
 ''KflKjnH 
 
 I^^^H 
 
 ^^^H 
 
 H^^^HE^^^P^H 
 
 ^^^^^St^^^^:^^ "^ jj^^l 
 
 
 ^^^^1 
 
 H^^l 
 
 ^^H^^^raHp^ «^r^H| 
 
 
 
 ihh 
 
 |H 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 W^^W 
 
 o 
 
 u 
 o 
 
 < 
 
 H 
 
 u 
 J 
 
 h 
 h 
 
course; I am now beginning a 
 beneficent career. I was dead and 
 in my grave; you smote the pallid 
 portals of my tomb and opened the 
 gates of opportunity. When next 
 the sun shall light the world, its 
 beams will be my resurrection morn. 
 The liberty of elements is henceforth 
 mine. I shall mingle with the air. 
 I shall descend into the mold. As 
 a living force, I shall again invigorate 
 roots. I shall once more become a 
 vital sap. I shall feel bough and 
 twig and leaf. I shall re-live my life 
 of bud and bloom. I shall draw 
 
 27 
 
from air and rain, from dew and 
 warmth, and give to man anew, aye 
 to thee and thine, the mystery and 
 beauty of fruit. This is my Easter 
 night, and you behold in me, as I 
 consume, the proof and sign, the 
 fact and force of nature's resur- 
 rection." 
 
 Was it the wind softened into 
 music by the smooth molding of the 
 cornice? For by the calendar of the 
 church no Easter hymn might swell 
 from organ pipe or voice for weeks 
 to come. Yet music soft and pure 
 as note of hermit thrush from misty 
 
 28 
 
"I did that which was right, I 
 hated evil, I gave bread to the 
 hungry and water to the thirsty, 
 clothing to the naked, succour to 
 him who was in need, therefore shall 
 I live." 
 
 EGYPTIAN EPITAPH. 
 
swamp at early dawn was in the 
 room. 
 
 I took the Book and turned 
 the leaves, and saw the blessed 
 words as prisoned men see stars: 
 
 "/ am the resurrection and the 
 life. He who believeth in Tne, 
 though he were dead^ yet shall he 
 live!' 
 
 Then bowed I down my head 
 and held communion with all that I 
 had loved and lost. With noble 
 women, manly men and children fair 
 and sweet; with withered leaves and 
 faded flowers, with broken rings and 
 
 29 
 
Birthless and deathless and 
 changeless remaineth the spirit for- 
 ever. 
 
 Death hath not touched it at 
 
 all, dead though the house of it 
 seems. 
 
 BHAGAVUD GITA. 
 
farewells at the edge of graves, and 
 scenes and things that once made 
 life for me, but which would be for 
 me no more; and with that perfect 
 one, the guiding spirit of my life, 
 whose face looks out of cloud and 
 sky and trees at me, but whom, 
 though seeking evermore, I never- 
 more can find. And when I rose 
 and turned, the blaze had died, the 
 brands were brown, and on the 
 hearthstone broad there lay a little 
 heap of whitened ash. No more? 
 
 30 
 
The wise neither grieve for the 
 dead nor the Hving. I myself never 
 was not, nor thou, nor all the princes 
 of the earth: nor shall we ever here- 
 after cease to be. 
 
 CELESTIAL SONG OF THE HINDOOS. 
 
"AN HOLY CULT OF 
 HOLY TREES." 
 
 IT is known that tree-worship existed 
 among all the European branches of 
 the Aryan stock. Oak worship obtained 
 among the Druids. With the ancient 
 Germans, sacred groves were common ; and 
 among their descendants, tree-worship is 
 hardly extinct, even to-day. Among the 
 old Prussians, were sacred oaks constantly 
 attended by a hierarchy of priests, who 
 never suffered the fire to go out in the 
 
 sacred grove. At Upsala, the old religious 
 
 31 
 
capital of Sweden, there was a sacred 
 grove, every tree in which was regarded as 
 holy. 
 
 ^^ree-worship abounded as a cult in Greece 
 and Italy. In the Forum, stood the sacred 
 fig-tree of Romulus ; and if, at any time, 
 it showed signs of distress, consternation 
 spread through the city. On the Palatine 
 stood a carnel tree. It was regarded as very 
 sacred. Plutarch speaks of it and the super- 
 stition regarding it, and says: "Whenever 
 this tree appeared to any passer-by as droop- 
 ing, he set up a hue and cry, which was 
 echoed by the people in the streets, and soon 
 a crowd might be seen running from all 
 sides with buckets of water, as if they were 
 
 hastening to put out a fire." 
 
 32 
 
 13 
 
^J^mong all the old-time folk, trees were 
 regarded as being animate and having souls, 
 even as their own. How or when this 
 faith arose is beyond interrogation ; but, that 
 it existed and was practically world-wide is 
 undeniable. In Eastern Africa, to destroy a 
 cocoanut tree is the same as to commit 
 matricide. In Siam, the holy men will not 
 even break the branch of a tree, because it 
 would be as wicked as to break the arm of an 
 innocent person. Buddhism borrowed its 
 reverence for trees from precedent peoples. 
 The Dyaks believe trees have souls, and will 
 not cut one down. In India, sex has been 
 immemorially ascribed to trees, and they are 
 formally married to each other with holy 
 rites. On Christmas Eve, German peasants 
 used to tie fruit-trees together with ropes of 
 
 33 (j) 
 
straw to make them bear fruit, saying that 
 the trees must be married to be fruitful. 
 
 II n the Malaccas, when the clove-trees 
 blossom they are treated as pregnant women. 
 No one is allowed to make a sudden noise 
 near them. No one must approach them 
 unless he uncovers his head. In Java, the 
 same ideas prevail. 
 
 ^^11 over the world, the belief that trees 
 are capable of feeling pain has always 
 abounded among aboriginal peoples. The 
 red men of our continent held to this faith 
 strongly. A prophet of the Sioux said to me 
 once : "Have you never heard the shriek of a 
 tree when it fell ? Have you never heard it 
 groan when it began to quiver and sway?" 
 
 34 
 
Among the Blackfeet, the old men told 
 me that trees had spirits even as them- 
 selves, and suffered as a man who is being 
 brutally killed under the axe. In Austria, 
 the peasants will not allow you to cut 
 the bark of a tree with your knife or 
 scratch it with a pin, because it gives it pain. 
 When a tree has to be destroyed, they 
 cut it down ! 
 
 jjljany ancient peoples believed that the 
 souls of the dead lived incorporate in the 
 trees. In the Philippine Islands, this faith 
 abounds. The islanders believe that the 
 spirits of their ancestors inhabit the trees, 
 and that it would be a heinous crime to cut 
 one down. If they ever have to fell one, 
 they first formally ask the tree's forgiveness, 
 
 35 
 
and then tell it that the priests have 
 commanded them to do it. 
 
 j^ mong certain tribes who do practice the 
 cutting down of trees, it is never done, in 
 the case of any tree, until the chopper has 
 gone in advance and warned the spirit within 
 to seek a new abode. When land has to be 
 cleared, a goodly number of trees is left, so 
 that the spirits in the woods should have 
 homes, and not desert the country. 
 
 ir. 
 
 n Sumatra, when a tree is felled, a young 
 tree is planted at its root, in order that the 
 spirit in losing its old home might have a new 
 one. In some cases, they leave money and 
 oil at the root of the tree, to compensate the 
 
 disturbed spirit for what it has suffered. 
 
 36 
 
 14 
 
i.<;.i 
 
"On either side of the river 
 was the Tree of Hfe, which bare 
 twelve fruits, and yielded her fruit 
 every month: and the leaves of the 
 tree were for the healing of the 
 nations." 
 
 APOCALYPSE. 
 
W. H. H.— Adirondack— Murray's 
 Complete Works. 
 
 INATIOISAL, EDIXIOIV. 
 
 (77te only Authorized edition of his 'writings especially and finally 
 enlarged and revised by him for publication.) 
 
 ADIRONDACK TALES. 
 
 Vol. I. The Story of the Man -who didn't know much. 
 Vol II. The Story of the Man who Missed it. 
 
 The Story that the Keg told me. 
 
 Who were they? and 
 
 The Old Trapper's Thanksgiving Party. 
 Vol. III. HoUday Tales (Illustrated.) 
 
 How John Norton, the Trapper, kept his Christmas. 
 
 John Norton's Vagabond, and 
 
 The Old Trapper's Thanksgiving in the City, 
 Vol. IV. Stories of Description and Humor. 
 
 CANADIAN IDYLS. 
 
 Vol. V. Mamelons and Ungava, with a historical introduction 
 and supplementary notes. 
 
 Vol. VI. Sermons, Lectures, and Addresses. 
 Vol. VII. The Old Apple Tree's Easter, or 
 
 A Tale of Nature's Resurrection. 
 Vol. VIII. How I am Educating my Daughters, or 
 
 A practical illustration of what can be done in devel- 
 opment of their loved ones by Parents at Home. 
 
 For information regarding any of Mr, Mrtrray's works, 
 
 address the author, personally, 
 
 Guilford, Conn.