THp ipearaon's Xane 



seems like metal ; it yields to slight pulling, and 

 proves to be a Washington penny. When the tree 

 was young, it had doubtless been hidden beyond 

 the bark, in accordance with a once widely preva- 

 lent notion that a coin so placed brought luck, 

 provided the owner voluntarily parted with it and 

 kept the fact a secret. I remember much of this 

 silliness as prevalent in my own day ; but children 

 and pennies have been more prominent than the 

 coveted luck. 



We found no owls, but it is something to dis- 

 cover where they have been and are likely, in 

 proper season, to be again. That they had feasted 

 when last in the .tree was evident from the hand- 

 fuls of mice bones that I scooped from several of 

 the deep holes in the trunk and larger branches. 

 On this tree, too, were singing birds, one a most 

 melancholy thrush, that, as my companion sug- 

 gested, sang snatches of Auld Lang Syne. Now, 

 this man was as prosy a mathematician as can be 

 found, and yet he had actually caught the spirit 

 of the place, or the spirit had caught him, and be- 

 fore we were at the last of the remaining old trees 

 he bore some slight resemblance to a poet. He 

 did not attempt any verses. Probably he had 

 never read ten lines of poetry in his life. He did 

 remark, however, " The quiet here is eloquent. I 

 seem to be some other than myself. Why is it ? " 

 Simply what I have already said, but he, being 

 mathematical and less receptive than common 

 186 



