To Him Who Plants a Tree

From a Hodges' scrapbook, dated 1922.  Hodges wrote two notes on this page:  "one of the very best," and "This makes me think of my father who was always planting a tree--He died at 80 1/2 years--at peace with all the world."  His father was John J. Hodges (1842-1923).

TO HIM WHO PLANTS A TREE

Perhaps our God has somewhere made a thing

More beautiful to see

Than a majestic tree;

But if He has, I think it grows

In Heaven, by the stream that flows

Where whiter souls than ours do sing.

Who plants a tree, his is akin to God,

In this impatient age

Where quick returns engage

The fevered service of the crowd.

In reverent wisdom he is bowed

And hides his purpose in the clod.

The blessed man that plants a long-lived tree

That shall grow nobly on

When he is dead and gone,

He seems to me to love his kind

With true sincerity of mind,

He seems to love his fellows yet to be.

Above his grave the suns shall flush and fade,

The seasons come and go

And storms shall drive and blow;

But sun and rain that from his tomb

Efface his name, renew the bloom

And glory of the monument he made.

--Author Unknown

The Goodwood drive, lined by "long-lived trees" that "grow nobly on"