QUERCUS 17 



ties over which those iron monsters fly, fast as 

 the wind, bearing their freight of human 

 lives." 



'*I would be a tall pole," said another, *^with 

 wires where now my branches are, and Man's 

 thoughts would fly over them faster than squir- 

 rels, faster than the flight of birds." 



**Nay, I would be none of those things," said 

 a hickory. *^I would know the touch of the 

 keen axe until I was hewn into a thousand 

 pieces, and these pieces should be placed in the 

 grate about which the family gathered on a 

 winter night. Then the red flames would 

 clasp me and crown me, even as the green 

 leaves now bind my brow, and the fire would 

 leap through my veins, even as the sweet sap 

 now flows through them, until at last that 

 which had been given me by the earth, would 

 return to the earth as ashes, and that which 

 had been given me by the air, would be freed 

 from the bondage of my being and return to 

 the spirit of the air." 



**And what would you be ?" asked the wind, 

 caressing the giant frame of Quercus, 



