the Harvester. "Much better! We will have you strong and
well soon. You should have come in time for a dose of sassafras. Your
hedge is filled with that, because of its peculiar leaves and odour. I
put in dogwood for the white display around the little green bloom,
lots of alder for bloom and berries, haws for blossoms and fruit for the
squirrels, wild crab apples for the exquisite bloom and perfume, button
bush for the buttons, a few pokeberry plants for the colour, and I tried
some mallows, but I doubt if it's wet enough for them. I set pecks of
vine roots, that are coming nicely, and ferns along the front edge. Give
it two years and that hedge will make a picture that will do your eyes
good."

"Can you think of anything at all you forgot?"

"Yes indeed!" said the Harvester. "The woods are full of trees I have
not used; some because I overlooked them, some I didn't want. A hedge
like this, in perfection, is the work of years. Some species must be cut
back, some encouraged, but soon it will be lovely, and its colour and
fruit attract every bird of the heavens and butterflies and insects of
all varieties. I set several common cherry trees for the robins and some
blackberry and raspberry vines for the orioles. The bloom is pretty and
the birds you'll have will be a treat to see and hear, if we keep away
cats, don't fire guns, scatter food, and move quietly among them. With
our water attractions added, there is nothing impossible in the way of
making friends with feathered folk."

"There is one thing I don't understand," said the Girl. "You wouldn't
risk breaking the wing of a moth by keeping it when you wanted a drawing
very much; you don't seem to kill birds and animals that other people
do. You almost worship a tree; now how can you take a knife and peel the
bark to sell or dig up beautiful bushes by the root."

"Perhaps I've talked too much about the woods," said the Harvester
gently. "I've longed inexpressibly for sympathetic company here, because
I feel rooted for life, so I am more than anxious that you should care
for it. I may have made you feel that my greatest interest is in the
woods, and that I am not consistent when I call on my trees and plants
to yield of their store for my purposes. Above everything else, the
human proposition comes first, Ruth. I do love my trees, bushes, and
flowers, because they keep me at the fountain of life, and teach me
lessons no book ever hints at; but above everything come m