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First draft of letter, in note-book 59 (4) Martinez,Sep.27, 1901 My dear Prof. Sargent: I'm glad to hear from you once
more, and to learn that Alice is coming. Tell her to send me word when she arrives. Wish you were coming too. Our letters
must have passed each other, as they often do, for I wrote you a week or more ago. I'm at work on an index for the park book,
and find it quite a job. The LL. D. is all right, and so is your picture in the World's Work, though one might say it is
almost ridiculously like you. Please send me a photo for my work room. You are welcome to the use of as much as you like
of my Seq uoia article, but you should get consent of the Atlantic. I spent 2 or 3 days this spring among the Big Basin redwoods,
a magnificent park, easy of access. But friends of the noble tree should strive together to purchase a much larger block in
the heart of the belt for a national park. No end to variety in form of roots. Have no particular photos of roots. Only small
portion of roots upturned to view. They spread far and wide. An entire root system brought to light would be a wonderful spectacle.
Have written no separate article on the subject. What little I know of the subterranean forests is scattered through my writings.
You will find exceedingly interesting and instructive notes and observations on plant roots in the works of Darwin. Many
thanks for Into the Light. I have read it through three times with growing pleasure. The divine calm of God's forests is in
it all through, and the thoughts the serene wisdom that naturally grows beneath them. Choosing the foot of an ancient pine
tree for your pulpit and a representative, eager, youthful, questioning human soul for your audience is a happy plan. When
I try to choose the verses I like best I find them so united, the thought flowing on so stream like, I am unable to choose.
Only those accustomed to sit beneath trees and loaf thoughtfully will appreciate the poem-to such it sounds as natural as
the wind in the branches. How particularly suggestive is Letter breaks off here John Muir Date supplied from following
letter in series - to Miss (Alice) Sargent 02890