Page:Emily Climbs.pdf/252

“I do all my studying now by the pool in the Land of Uprightness, among those wonderful, tall, slender trees. I’m a Druidess in the woods—I regard trees with something more than love—worship.

“And then, too, trees, unlike so many humans, always improve on acquaintance. No matter how much you like them at the start you are sure to like them much better further on, and best of all when you have known them for years and enjoyed intercourse with them in all seasons. I know a hundred dear things about these trees in the Land of Uprightness that I didn’t know when I came here two years ago.

“Trees have as much individuality as human beings. Not even two spruces are alike. There is always some kink or curve or bend of bough to single each one out from its fellows. Some trees love to grow sociably together, their branches twining, like Ilse and me with our arms about each other, whispering interminably of their secrets. Then there are more exclusive groups of four or five—clan-Murray trees; and there are hermits of trees who choose to stand apart in solitary state and who hold commune only with the winds of heaven. Yet these trees are often the best worth knowing. One feels it is more of a triumph to win their confidence than that of easier trees. Tonight I suddenly saw a great, pulsating star resting on the very crest of the big fir that stands alone in the eastern corner and I had a sense of two majesties meeting that will abide with me for days and enchant everything—even classroom routine and dish-washing and Aunt Ruth’s Saturday cleaning.

“We had our history examination today—the Tudor period. I’ve found it very fascinating—but more because of what isn’t in the histories than of what is. They don’t—they can’t tell you what you would really like to know. What did Jane Seymour think of when she was