The sapling, because it bends to the breeze is not therefore destitute of life; unless it be torn up by the roots, or scorched and withered by the noon-day sun, or absolutely frozen by the winter's cold, it will gradually wax and grow until its massive trunk is able to bid defiance to the storm.

The saplings must be about twelve feet in length.

By the time the sapling is five or six hundred years old this spiry, feathery, juvenile habit merges into the firm, rounded dome form of middle age, which in turn takes on the eccentric picturesqueness of old age.

The strong sapling which the barbarians brought from their German forests and planted in the heart of Europe,and which had silently grown in the darkest ages of barbarism, guarded by the hand of Providence,became a sturdy tree in the feudal ages, and bore fruit when the barons had wasted their strength in Asia.