Mignonne, allons voir si la rose 

Qui ce matin avait déclosé 

Sa robe de poupre au soleil 

A point perdu cette vêprée 

Les plis de sa robe pourprée 

Et son teint au vôtre pareil 

Las! Voyez comme en peu d'espace 

Mignonne, elle a dessus la place 

Las! las! ses beautés laissé choir! 

O vraiment marâtre est Nature 

Puisqu'une telle fleur ne dure 

Que du matin jusques au soir! 



Donc, si vous me croyez, mignonne 

Tandis que votre âge fleuronne 

En sa plus verte nouveaut 

Cueillez, cueillez votre jeunesse: 

Comme à cette fleur, la vieillesse 

Fera ternir votre beauté 



The old willows wrecked again and again in the hold of the woods held

in close confinement all round into the struggle for existance where the

streams were constantly taken from their course by the roots of the old

trees in the woods allowing no mill stream the free course through until

the whole of these fine old trees had got their whole water course directed

by their own roots into each others roots in their own devious way &

so each time the bad weather conditions came the dell of the old popular

willows received the whole rainfall & gave the roots of the old popular

trees the worst conditions they could not recover from. The result was

when the bad storms swept the ground downhill the whole of the upright

branches of the populars were wrecked and wrenched off as none had

sufficient root hold to do any good in holding as against the winds forcing

both root & trunks & branches to give way. The ultimate result was as

stated the cracking down of the branches & the breaking off of the main

trunk as it had no side branches to help its leaves to support the whole

tree. This gave the stubble growth of enforcing the trunk low down near

the ground to spray out the small side branches & to develope in the trunk

the further strength to enlarge the top of the trunk to enable the heavy

branch growth to develop & to give out a large number of spray branches

in all directions to keep control of the wind and also to stop the wind from

further to destroy the old trees in its course the winds followed the well

streams & then got the clear run free of the trees until a run of heavy old

tree trunks guided them out again into the ground where the rising ground

destroyed them by holding them in face clear of the winds the night mist. 

-- Louis Wain (1860-1939)