Jasper County Democrat, Volume 17, Number 96, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1915 — Plant a Tree, Says Walt. [ARTICLE]

Plant a Tree, Says Walt.

but you can’t help but get rich.’’ Walt Mason, the poet philosopher, says: "To be in line with worthy folk, you soon must plant an elm or oak, a beech or maple fair to see, a single -or a doubletree. When winter's storms no longer roll, go, get a spade and dig a hole, and bring a sapling from the woods, and show your neighbors you’re the goods. What though with years you’re bowed and bent, and feel your life is nearly spent? The tree you plant will rear its limbs, and there the birds will sing their hymns, and in its c'ool and grateful shade the girls will sip their lemonade; and lovers there oh moonlight nights will get Dan Cupid dead to rights; and fervid oaths and tender vows will go a-zipping through its boughs. And folks will say, with gentle sigh: Long years ago an ancient guy, whose whiskers brush*ed against hrs knee, inserted in the ground this tree. 'Twas but a little sapling then; and he the kindliest of old men, was well aware that he'd be dead, long ere its branches grew and spread, but still he stuck it in the mold, and never did his feet grow cold. Oh, he was wise and kind and brave —let’s place a nosegay on his grave!’ We don’t forget such men as he! Co, then, and plant a beerbohm tree.”