STORY 

 PICTURE 



Oo 



o 



0, the fifteenth letter in the English alphabet, and 

 the fourth of the vowels. The Phoenician alphabet 

 had a letter which in form was like the capital O, 

 and was called ayin, meaning eye; but, like all the 

 Phoenician letters, it was a consonant. Just what 

 sound it represented is not known, but it must have 



been some sound which the Greeks did not possess, for when they took over the 

 alphabet they used the letter form to represent the sound of o in no; perhaps this 

 use was suggested to them by the rounding of the lips in giving that sound. At first 

 the Greeks had only one o, but later they developed another, and called one omicron, 

 or little o, and the other omega, or great o. The former stood for the short o, which 

 was not like the sound known in English as short o, but was merely a shortened form 

 of the long o sound. 



In English, o is made to do duty for a number of sounds. The most important are 

 the long o sound, as in note, which resembles the sound of o in continental languages; 

 and the so-called short o sound, as in not and log. This is in reality not an o sound 

 at all, but approaches very closely the a sound in father. Other values are the oo 

 sound, as in prove, and the u sound, as in love. In certain words it has an obscure 

 sound, and is, indeed, almost neglected in pronunciation, as in season. 



OAHU, oah'hoo, the most fertile of the Ha- 

 waiian Islands, and the one which ranks first 

 in importance. It contains Honolulu, the capi- 

 tal of the territory of Hawaii, and Pearl Har- 

 bor, the site of the most favorably located of 

 United States naval stations. It is nearly a 

 rectangle in form, and covers an area of 600 

 square miles; in 1910 it supported a population 

 of about 82,000. Oahu is remarkable for its 

 beautiful scenery a combination of volcanic 

 peaks and fertile valleys, cliffs, crags and 

 mountain torrents, wooded ravines and tropical 

 vegetation. See HAWAII. 



OAK, called by Dryden "the monarch oak, 

 the patriarch of the trees," has for ages been a 

 symbol of sturdiness and of the strength which 

 defies time and tempest. Many poets have 

 sung of the "hearts of oak" of their country- 

 men, and they have encouraged mankind in 

 its struggles with the reminder that "tall oaks 

 from little acorns grow." A favorite poem of 

 the children, written by H. F. Chorley, tells 

 the virtues of this tree in picturesque phrases: 



A song to the oak, 



The brave old oak, 

 Who hath ruled in the greenwood long ! 



Here's health and renown 



To his broad, green crown, 

 And his fifty arms so strong ! 



Here's fear in his frown 



When the sun goes down 

 And the fire in the west fades out ; 



And he showeth his might, 



On a wild, stormy night, 

 When the storms through his branches shout. 



Then here's to the oak, 



The brave old oak, 

 Who stands in his pride alone ; 



And still flourish he, 



A hale, green tree, 

 When a hundred years are gone ! 



It is the acorn which distinguishes the oak 

 from other trees. The acorn is the oak seed; 

 it is like a round, smooth-shelled nut, pointed 

 at its outer end and enclosed at the inner end 

 by a saucer, or cup. Most oaks can be recog- 

 nized by their leaves, but the live oak and the 

 ilex and some other varieties have a smooth- 

 edged leaf. Oaks grow slowly, and do not yield 



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