Give me the saw." I handed him the thin-bladed saw, and he rapidly cut out the old hard bough, close down to the place where it branched from the dumpy trunk, and then, handing me the tool, he knelt down on a pad of carpet he carried in his tremendous pocket.
"Now look here," he said; and taking his sharp pruning-knife he cut off every mark of the saw, and trimmed the bark.
I looked on attentively till he had ended.
"Well," he said, "ain't you going to ask why I did that ?" "I know, sir," I said.

"To make it neat." "Only partly right, Grant.

I've cut that off smoothly so that no rain may lodge and rot the place before the wound has had time to heal." "And will it heal, sir ?" "Yes, Grant.

In time Nature will spread a ring of bark round that, which will thicken and close in till the place is healed completely over." Then he busily showed me the use of the saw and knife among the big standard trees, using them liberally to get rid of all the scrubby, crowded, useless branches that lived upon the strength of the tree and did no work, only kept out the light, air, and sunshine from those that did work and bear fruit.
"Why it almost seems, sir," I said one day, "as if Nature had made the trees so badly that man was obliged to improve them." "Ah, I'm glad to hear you say that, my lad," he said; "but you are not right.

I'm only a gardener, but I've noticed these things a great deal.
Nature is not a bungler.