He threw the log into a pool of water, and soon forgot
all about it. Weeks and months passed, and he never felt in the humor to
work. But the log of wood set to work of its own accord. It had been cut
from a willow, and it took root at the bottom of the pool and began to
grow. In the end it became a handsome and flourishing tree."
This story was approved by the young audience, except that it was too
short; but their governess laughingly said that, as there was nothing
more to tell, it could not very well be any longer.
[Illustration: THE WEEPING WILLOW (_Salix Babylonica_).]
"The weeping willow," continued Miss Harson, "was first planted in
England in not so lazy a way, but almost as accidentally. Many years ago
a basket of figs was sent from Turkey to the poet Pope, and the basket
was made of willow. Willows and their cousins the poplars are natives of
the East; you remember that the one hundred and thirty-seventh psalm
says of the captive Jews, 'By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down,
yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the
willows in the midst thereof.' 'The poet valued highly the small slender
twigs, as associated with so much that was interesting, and he untwisted
the basket and planted one of the branches in the ground. It had some
tiny buds upon it, and he hoped he might be able to rear it, as none of
this species of willow was known in England. Happily, the willow is very
quick to take root and grow.
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