"
"The tulip or poplar-tree and the red-oak in the rich loam of these
hills live long and attain to giant proportions. The vines which cling
in such profusion to many of these are commensurate with them in time.
They spring up at their bases and grow with them: the tree performing
the kindly office of nurse, lifting them in her arms and carrying them
until their summits, with united leaves, seem to kiss the clouds. They
live and cling together through tempests and time until worn out with
length of days, when they tumble and fall to the earth together, and
together die. We all, Flora and Fauna, go down to the bosom of our
common mother to rest in death. I love the companionship of the forest.
There is an elevation of soul in this communion with incorruptible
nature: there is sincerity and truth in the hills and valleys--in the
trees and vines, and music--grand orchestral music--in the moaning of
the limbs and leaves, played upon by the hurrying winds. I have prayed
to be a savage, and to live in the woods."
"You are as usual, sister, very romantic to-night."
"By and by, brother, I shall forget it I presume.
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