The Oaks 287 



running from the green shell to a central 

 core. The shell is very tender, turning black 

 almost at a touch. It is edible if one has 

 a palate for faint sweet with a touch of 

 tannin under it. Spanish oaks rival the 

 white oaks in producing a second sort of 

 gall, one the size of your thumb's end, 

 smooth, shiny, almost woody, of a mingled 

 red and white all over. "Ink-balls," country 

 children call them, with some show of rea- 

 son. Ink can be made from them by put- 

 ting in a little copperas or bluestone. Besides, 

 the ink-balls are cousins-german to the Aleppo 

 nut galls, that were, in the days before coal- 

 tar came to its kingdom, a great factor in 

 making the very best black ink. 



Black oak and Spanish furnish timber of 

 the best, since, though they grow big and tall, 

 they grow slow enough to make wood of fine 

 close grain. The sap is cream white, the hearts 

 ruddily dark. Both work up excellently, and 

 when green make the very best of firewood. 

 Seasoned, they burn too free. It may be worth 

 while to add that green wood, though not so 

 easy to set on fire, once it is afire, makes a 

 hotter glow and lasts longer than dry. 



Chestnut oaks did not grow upon White 

 Oaks plantation. Joe had heard they were 

 very plenty up in the mountains. He won- 

 dered if they were in the least like the 



