tepped immediately out of the shady, well-wooded park, whose
margin was planted with noble white-pines, into a wonderful and
complicated arrangement of orchard-trees, in a level field several
acres in extent, that had a truly magical effect.

The plats were bordered with dwarf-apple and pear-trees that looked
very much like small yews; their stems were hardly two feet in height,
and the branches on each side so disposed on wires, that they extended
to the width of thirty feet. These were now in full bloom the whole
length, and the arrangement exhibited man's energetic and shaping
volition, where nature was compelled to become a free work of art, and
even warped into a dwarfish over-refinement. Trees of all imaginable
geometrical forms were placed, sometimes in circles and sometimes in
rows. Here was a tree that, from the bottom to the top which shot up
into a sharp point, had only four branches at an even distance from
each other, and directed to the four cardinal points. On the walls,
trees were trained exactly in the shape of a candelabrum with two
branches; others had stems and branches adjusted obliquely, like
basaltic strata. All was according to artistic rules, and also in the
most thriving condition.

Eric listened attentively while Sonnenkamp was informing him that the
limbs must be cut in, so that the sap might all perfect the fruit, and
not go too much to the formation of wood.

"Perhaps you have a feeling of pity for these clipped branches?"
Sonnenkamp asked in a sharp tone.

"Not at all; but the old, natural form of the fruit-trees so well known
to us--"

"Yes, indeed,"' Sonnenkamp broke in, "people are horrible creatures of
prejudice! Is there any one who sees anything ugly, anything coercive,
in pruning the vine three times every season? No one. No one looks
for beauty, but for beautiful fruit, from the vine; so also from the
fruit-tree. As soon as they began to bud and to graft, the way was
indicated, and I am only following it consistently. The ornamental tree
is to be ornamental, and the fruit-tree a fruit-tree, each after its
kind. This apple-tree, must have its limbs just so, and have just so
many of them, as will make it bear the largest apples and the greatest
possible number. I want from a fruit-tree not wood, but fruit."

"But nature----"

"Nature! Nature!" Sonnenkamp exclaimed, in a contemptuous tone.
"Nine-tenths of what they call nature is, nothing but an artificial
sham, and a whimsic