And these, ere many days, the autumn winds would scatter,
and the leafless branches on which they fell would shake them
off lightly, never dreaming that they hid the soul of a home.
Nothing but ashes!

Poor Tom o' the blueb'ry plains!


---------------------------------------------------------------


THE NOONING TREE.


The giant elm stood in the centre of the squire's fair green meadows,
and was known to all the country round about as the "Bean ellum."
The other trees had seemingly retired to a respectful distance,
as if they were not worthy of closer intimacy; and so it stood alone,
king of the meadow, monarch of the village.

It shot from the ground for a space, straight, strong, and superb,
and then bust into nine splendid branches, each a tree in itself,
all growing symmetrically from the parent trunk, and casting
a grateful shadow under which all the inhabitants of the tiny
village might have gathered.

It was not alone its size, its beauty, its symmetry, its density
of foliage, that made it the glory of the neighborhood, but the low
grown of its branches and the extra-ordinary breadth of its shade.
Passers-by from the adjacent towns were wont to hitch their teams