10 FOREST FANCIES 



their heads. Some did not care — were con- 

 tent with the shadow, but Quercus was proud 

 and would not brook the shade. 



Sometimes he bent before the wind, some- 

 times he bowed beneath the snow, yet steadily 

 Quercus grew. He had roots firm in the 

 ground, a fine, straight stem, and a crown of 

 leafy branches. He dressed like the other 

 young oaks in the forest. If he wore branches 

 lower than forest fashion demanded, they were 

 overshadowed and withered away. The fash- 

 ion of the open country was to wear branches 

 low, but Quercus was a social tree and must 

 follow the fashion of the forest ; so, not liking 

 ridicule, he kept his stem as smooth and trim 

 as he could and tried not to adopt the ways of 

 country trees that grow in the open. 



Yet in spite of all this youthful vanity, 

 Quercus had a good, sound heart, though he 

 was a little sappy. 



The heartwood of Quercus stood in the rela- 

 tion of a skeleton to him. It was hard and 

 strong, with closed-up cells, for the sap arose 

 through the softer tissue of the newer wood, 



