the swamp maple

"In the evening,...we stopped to admire the swamp maple in the springlot. It is an old tree; its top is as big as the farmhouse. In spring it was bright satin. This fall it has colored earlier and more richly than the adjacent soft maples. Standing high against the bright blue evening sky, with the western sunlight full upon it, the swamp maple was genuinely spectacular. If there had been nothing else of beauty or goodness on the whole hundred acres, that one tree would have been enough."

                                      - Rural Free, a Farmwife's Almanac of Country Living,  by Rachel Peden