THE ASH TREE'S FAREWELL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 10, 12 January 1871, Page 2

THE ASH TREE'S FAREWELL.

I [A friend of ours who happened lo he passing (he spot at the time the beautiful ash tree on the banks of the Muitai was blown down has houded us the following document which he found lying nenr it.] Well do I remember the time, although it is now many years ago — more than a quarter of a century — when I was but a very tiny thing just showing my head above the ground. By the side of tne was a little raupo hut where my kind old master lived, and I have many pleasaut recollections of how fondly he used to teud me, aud how carefully and anxiously he watched me day by day as I grew bigger and bigger until at last I made quite a show in his littlo garden plot. Those were strange old times, but I think I liked them as well ns any I have ever seeu. Just helow mo, the river flowed along merrily, and many a pleasant little talk we have had together when the wind set me chattering away iu a soft rustling whisper. He used to tell me where he came from, and what sights he had seen on his road, aud occasionally would indulge in prophesies of the future that was before hirh. After a time, there were planks put across from bank to bauk on which people used to pass backwards and forwards, but every uow and then my rippling friend would come dowu in great force and sweep away iu his giaut's strength all these contrivances for avoiding contact with him — as though he would hurt anyone when he was in a good temper! Sometimes, however, I must confess, I was alarmed to see how rough and boisterous he became, but when he got over the excitement, and lost his sombre gloomy appear;*. uce, smd had once more put on his bright cheerful look, we would chat away agaio, and my lively little companion would say "The day will, come when you will see a great change all around you, and these bits of timber that annoy me so by ruffling my appearance as I touch them in passing, will he removed, and bridges built, over me a long way out of my reach," and I used to laugh at the conceited little fellow for thinking himself of so much importance, but the time arrived when I saw he was right. One day, he came bustling down witb such a disturbed look on his face that I knew something had happened, and he tried to hurry by me without is peaking, but I was determined lo know what was the matter, so I asked him the reason why he was looking so frightened, and he told me that, as he was passing along at the foot of tbe "Sacred Mou u tain, four men had seated themselves beside him, and he had heard them talk together in a subdued whisper of a bloody deed they had performed on the other side of the mouutain. More he would not fell me, as he was in ahurry to unbosom himself of his awful secret to his father confessor, the great sea. I remember well the time, and how, that night, there came sweeping dowu from my friend's home, a rustling breeze, nnd it too told tbe same tale, and moaned forth the sad story through rny leafless boughs until I shivered again with horror. And then came great excitement, and hundreds of people passed me every day as they went out to ascertain the correctness of the rumor they hoped was false, but which I knew to be true. Days and weeks passed by, until at last, one night when the rain poured down, aud the roads were deep in mud, there were sounds which reached me from the other side of the river of the tramp of many hundred feet, and, dark as it was, I could see a ghastly sight. Four lifeless bodies were borne along, bearing ou them the marks. of a terrible deed; and after that I had no knowledge of what was going on until in a few weeks' time I heard the tolling ofa bell, the echoes of . which, as they reverberated from the hills around me, seemed to say, Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by mau shall his blood be shed. And then I knew what had happened. But I have gone, so far ahead that I have omitted to say how I sprung up from a little sapling to becoming a well grown, and shapely tree. I can remember how proud I was when first I was able to look over tbe high bank that rose up between me aud the towD, and could see what was being done there. How I used to watch every new building that was put up, and as each day passed by, tell my little friend, the river,of the number of houses that were springing up where once there was only fern und manuka, and then he would smile a pleasant smile, and ask me whether I remembered what he had said in the days of old. And I was obliged to admit that he was right. I once had another acquaintance who lived not far from me ; I mean the old Buchatea tree, who took a fancy to me from the very first, and when he was a great big fellow, and I was but a little thing, he used to tell me of what was going on in the town before I was tall enough to see for myself, and as I grew up we became most

intimate friends, and we used to laugh and chatter away whenever there was a breeze siiring our leaves, aud many were the gossips tbat we bad together, and numberless the secrets that we beard from people who came and talked near us, and these we used to tell each oilier high up in the air where no one could hear us. But a time arrived when some cruel men, armed with axes, came and cut down my dear old frieud, and ever since then I have felt lonely and melancholy. It is true that other trees sprung up close to me, but I could never become so friendly with them as with the one I had known and revered from my childhood, so that I became sullen aud reserved, and have never mentioned to any living tree all that I have heard from the young people who used to come aud sit beneath my shade in those soft evening hours when "Lovers' vows Seemed swei-t in every whispered word." ' I bave not mentioned here a tithe of all that I have it in my power to relate of the people I have known, or tlie changes I have seen, but since my bosom friend was taken from me, I havo grown forlorn and uncommunicative, and I wonder at myself for having penned even these iew lines. I feel now that there is nothing worth living for, and I have that within me which warns me that my end too is approaching, I care not bow soou. My only wish is that when I die it may be in some wild stormy evening when the wind is ragiug aud the rain Here the document terminates abruptly. .