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NA T URE-ST UD Y RE VIE W 



[13:7— Oct., 1917 



other trees crowded so close around me and I got a bit tired of 

 fighting for food and for the Hght of the sun on my leaves. But, 

 everything considered, it was good fun and a fair fight — I enjoyed 

 it. I am the only one left now ; how many of us there used to be ! 

 Do you see those trees way yonder?" 



I looked far out over the valley and up to the horizon hills, all 

 woods on top. The sun was just going down behind them and it 

 was very wonderful to see. The oak went on : 



"There was a time that when the winds blew among my branches 

 and then away, they were carried by other waving branches all the 

 way to the branches of those, my brother oaks — yes, and further 

 than that, too. We were all one big forest, one big family, in those 

 days." 



"How long ago was that?" I asked. 



"We do not count time as you do, but it was long before you were 

 bom, and before the time of your father, too. The first man I ever 

 saw always carried with him a long gun, and powder in a powder- 

 horn. He wore a coon-skin cap and could live in the woods just as 

 well as he could at home. He used to talk to me, too, and twice he 

 slept under me, altho I was smaller then and there were many finer 

 trees about. That was long ago, but I had lived long before that. 



Leaves and acorn of l:)lack oak 



