The narrator of one of the stories in Mary Wilkins Freeman's 1903 collection Six Trees asks, "A man may cut down a tree and plant one. Who knows what effect the tree may have upon the man, to his raising or undoing?" While the stories in this collection explore several themes common to regional literature of New England, such as capitalism and gender, trees are at the center of the book. The Elm-Tree, the White Birch, the Great Pine,
the Balsam Fir, the Lombardy Poplar, and the Apple-Tree ask readers to consider the relationship between humans and the natural world.