y when
we find a brilliant cardinal flower, or a showy lady's slipper, just
as we forget the timid, tender tones of the bluebird when the grand
song of the grosbeak floods the evening air, or the exquisite melody
of the hermit thrush spiritualizes the leafy woods; just as many a man
forgets the ministrations of his humbler friends in early life when he
has climbed into the society of those whom earth calls great. But the
aspens will neither grieve nor murmur. They will continue to make
delightful color contrasts with their smooth white trunks at the
gateways of the dark woods in winter and whisper to every lightest
breeze with their delicate leaves in summer. The aspen, like the
grass, hastens to cover every wound and burn on the face of nature. It
follows the willow in reclaiming the sandy river bottoms and replaces
the pines which fire has swept from the Rocky Mountain slopes. It has
a record in the rocks and a richer story in literature. Its trembling
leaves have caught the attention of all the poets from Homer until
now. The Scottish legend says they tremble because the cross of
Calvary was made from an aspen tree. The German legend says the
trembling is a punishment because the aspen refused to bow when the
Lord of Life walked in the forest. But the Hebrew chronicler says that
the Lord once made his presence upon the earth heard in the movement
of the aspen leaves. "And it shall be, when thou shalt hear a sound of
going in the tops of the aspen [wrongly translated mulberry] trees,
that then thou shalt go forth to battle; for God is gone before thee
to smite the host of the Philistines." What a fine conception of the
nearness of the Omnipresent and the gentleness of the Almighty! No
sound or sign from the larger trees! Only the whisper of the lightest
leaves in the aspen tops when the Maker of the world went by!

The aspen was made the chief tree in the groves of Proserpine. And
Homer, in describing the Cyclops' country, speaks of it as a land of
soft marshy meadows, good rich crumbling plow land, and beautiful
clear springs, with aspens all around them. How much that sounds like
a description of Iowa!

* * * * *

The willow is equally distinguished. The roots of its "family tree"
are in the cretaceous rocks and its branches spread through the waters
of Babylon, the Latin eclogues, the wondrous fire in the Knightes'
Tale, Shakespeare's plays, the love songs of Herrick and Moore, and