and she felt sure that it lived, too, for it moved and had a voice. And a
strong feeling stirred the young soul, a sudden desire to know all things,
to hold communion with all things.

Now the day was gone, and the child turned homewards; but she seemed to
hear in sleep that night the whispered question, "What is life?" She was
yet to know.

The seed had been blown away from a pine tree, and it took root downward
and shot green spears upward, until, when a few summers had passed, it had
grown so famously that a sparrow built her nest there, among the foliage,
and never had her roof been so water-proof before. There, one day, came a
tall, fair girl, with quick step and beaming eyes, and sat down at its
root. One hand caressed lovingly the young pine, and one clasped a folded
paper. How she had grown since she put that brown seed into the earth! She
opened the paper and read; a bright color came to her cheeks, and her hand
trembled--

"He loves me!" said she. "I cannot doubt it."

Then she read aloud--

"When you are mine, I shall carry you away from those old woods where you
spend so much precious time dreaming vaguely of the future. I will teach
you what life is. That its golden hours should not be wasted in idle
visions, but made glorious by the exhaustless wealth of love. True life
consists in loving and being loved."

She closed the letter and gazed around her. Was this the teaching she had
received from those firm old oaks who had so long stood before the storms?