The first time I heard her laugh I stopped in surprise. It sounded so crystalline, so pure, so aerial, that no note of music in my memory could suggest an equivalent. She was greatly amused by my ignorance. I did not know how to distinguish an ash tree from a beech, an aspen from an elm, or a hornbeam from a sycamore. At first I was not a very apt pupil. The usefulness of this forest-lore did not impress me. I permitted myself to be instructed as a pastime, but she brought much patience to the work, for she believed in it. What do we learn at college, that we should be ignorant of such elementary things? If I had asked of her, as I asked the children about their songs, who had taught them to her, she would doubtless have answered as they did: “No one.” The forest, of which she was the little queen, revealed to me all its rites and mysteries; not only those which one sees from horseback in the alleys, but those also which belong to the depths of its life and which one must seek on foot, gently, under its arched trees, as one studies the aisles of a church and the ornaments of the chapels. “A tree, like a human being, grows refined in society,” M. Mairieux explained to me. “When it stands alone we see its trunk short, stumpy and gnarled, its roots cramped in the soil, its foliage growing close to the ground and its summit bare, as if it had rolled itself up to resist the wind; but in the company of others it reveals a smooth, round shaft, bare of branches until far up, while at the top they form a thick and symmetrical group. But this elegance, this dash, this grace, I was about to say this politeness, does not preclude the competition which is the law of nature. A grove of beautiful trees rises toward the sun, each wishes to receive from on high the light of day, and the conquered ones, broken and suffocated, degenerate and soon perish. The law of selection is at work here as everywhere, for the benefit of the strong who overthrow the weak and attain to a free and higher expansion.” Raymonde admired the victors, but disapproved of their pride. “I believe,” she said, “that if I were changed into a tree, I should be a species of shadow.” “A species of shadow?” I repeated in astonishment. “Yes, there are trees of shadow and trees of light. Did you not know that?”