QUERCUS 15 



which to ride, houses in which to live, beds 

 and chairs to make him comfortable, fences 

 so that he can own a piece of earth and keep 

 his neighbor off." 



Almost every day, as the wind went hurry- 

 ing by from over plains and cities and seas, 

 the trees asked him questions. Strollers in the 

 wood, listening, said, ^^Hear the wind talking 

 through the branches.'' 



Only they did not really believe that the 

 wind was talking, though all the while he was 

 telling the trees what use Man made of their 

 wood. 



'*I should like to be a house," said one, ^'a 

 beautiful, sweet home sheltering a family of 

 little children, even as now I shelter birds and 

 squirrels." 



*^And I," said another tree, *^ should like to 

 be the table around which they gathered morn- 

 ing, noon, and night. Years afterward they 

 would remember me, around whom they had 

 so often met." 



''And I would be the chair in which the 

 grandfather sat," said a third — ''a good, gray 



