120 LESSONS OUT OF DOORS.

home here as ever you did on the Rhine. I do, as much
as ever I did at Kelso and Hawick. It is so with trees
and shrubs. See that ailanthus or celestial tree, how
kindly it grows here, though it came from the Moluccas ;
and see this double althea or Hibescus Symaous, which
has forgotten its native Asia.”

“Very well, Donald,” said Carl, “I hope it will be
so. But I see by the knots and marks on this althea
that it has had a good deal of cutting and pruning, and
so have I.” |

“ Look again, my young friend,” said the gardener,
“and you will observe the effects of this cutting and
pruning. The little tree has become more vigorous,
and has put out thicker branches, and is covered with
ten times as many flowers, as if it had never known
affliction. This is one of the lessons of the garden.”

“I see it, I see it!” exclaimed Helen; “and I trust
we shall all profit by the hand of our merciful Lord.”

“Just so, young lady,” replied the old man, with a
benignant smile. “For what says our blessed Master?
‘Every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it
may bring forth more fruit’”(John xv. 12),