The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1898-04-02

famlllar as the lace OF my father an(
mother These trees have stood in thei
places for sixty, yes nearly seventy years
and yet they tell me that they are going tt
cut the Paradise tree down. destroy in
few hours what God took seventy years tt
develop. | sat down on the porch quite
while and from memory's picture CALLER,
drew forth past scenes of the old yard anC
garden which our camera now fails to do
Over the gate that enters the garden
climbed my woodbine honeysuckle, which
was the Joy and pride Of my life A little
beyond that stood the BARTLETT pear tree
which it was my business when q girl tc
visit early in the morning when the pear.
were getting ripe. There may be good
pears now but we never tasted anything
like those; and there, too, stood the old
grape arbor, such luscious grapes they
were, and the May Duke cherry trees, and
the raspberry and currant bushes, ali gone
now. | noticed cherry tree just about
where oDe of the old May Dukes stood
upon inquiring they told me it was Black
Heart cherry and not a May Duke.
could not identify it, though its trunk
showed age-at last it dawned upon me.
When the May Duke that stood in that
place was quite young my father grated OF
it a limb of Black Heart, it was of vigor-
GUS growth, and came in bearing when |
was quite child; that limb is the tree
which is now drawing it's nourishment
from the trunk and roots OF the original
old May Duke. 1t bears Black Heart
cherries. | noticed that it inclines over
the lane, the same that the limb did forty
five years ago. What lesson, the inclina-
tious of childhood and youth developed in
old age
''As the twig Is bent tie tree inclines"
looked upon the river, my eyes wander
ing up and down. Suddenly familiar
sight doomed up before me. recognized
some Of the old trees that grew near the
river shore. They seemed to reproach me
and say, you surely remember u.s." The
river was just flowing quietly on, and the
boats sailing up and down, the same as in
days of yore. There at the foot of the hill
to my left, toward Major Hyland's, stood
the old chestnut over the spring. We
gather up our camera for l want picture
of this. Stopping at the spring we did not
find the old time gourd, so doubled a leaf
shaping it like cup, we children used to
make, and all had cool refreshing drink.
How well remember my craving for this
same cool spring water in later years when
on a sick he'd parched with fever, In i'm
agination would be around the old spring
but could not get a drink. When we at
tempted to go beyond the spring to a spot
that ] once thought was the most beautiful
on earth, where the neighbors' children
and had our play houses and made our
mud pies and cakes, we found it so over.
grown with bushes, and the water having
cut its way in from the little run close by,
that in our efforts to reach it we literally
wallowed in the mire and had to retrace
OUT steps.
The next point Of interest was to 20 to
the river and take a picture of the old
"gum tree We went down the lane and
over the little bridge at the dyke, and just
little farther on, where the water makes
its way into the lower field and forms a
marshy place there, growing and blooming
in luxuriant beauty, were both the pink
and crimson eye variety Of Hibiscus, that
| treasure with such care in my own yard
at home; these have Gods air, earth and
water, nothing more. We walk under the
great sycamore trees lifting their white
arms 10 Heaven, and there is the old thorn
bush with the trumpet vine growing over
it, the red trumpet like flowers in full
bloom. We congratulated the old thorn
that it had grown up SO near the marshes
edge that it was so much out of the way Of
every one, because to this fact felt sure
was why it had not been grubbed up and
swept off the face of the earth.
Now we find ourselves on the river shore,
and here stands the great old gum tree,
with no visible marks OF decay upon it.
The hero of century of sunshine and
storms, majestic in proportions, twenty
four feet in circumference, by actual meas
urement, it's great branches, like trees,
swaying in the breeze, the very personiica-
ton of strength, beauty and grandeur. 1t
is the most beautiful tree, think, my eyes
ever rested upon. The watermen that
piled this river steered their crafts by this
old landmark long before this generation
knew it. But my ancient idol is polluted,
for there at its base, and under its wide
spreading branches has been erected can
ming house with all its vile odors and sur
roundings. We adjust the camera to take
the photograph of the tree alone, if posi-.
BILE, and not the canning house, for
thought what an insult is this structure to
the ''old giant" which breathed nothing
in all the past decades but the pure air OF
Heaven. How that old tree is linked with
my life. played about it when child
as maid l sat beneath it and read my
favorite books-when l was being wooed it
was our trysting place-as a wife and