" "That it may be, but still it ought to be treated a little more respectfully.

Snetkov, now...We may be of use, or we may not, but we're the growth of a thousand years.

If we're laying out a garden, planning one before the house, you know, and there you've a tree that's stood for centuries in the very spot....

Old and gnarled it may be, and yet you don't cut down the old fellow to make room for the flowerbeds, but lay out your beds so as to take advantage of the tree.

You won't grow him again in a year," he said cautiously, and he immediately changed the conversation.