ROOF-TREE. 285 



winter day I climbed to the top of a mountain to sur- 

 vey a large butternut which some hunters had told 

 me of, and which now, one year later, I see about 

 me in base and panel as I write. One thus gets a 

 lively background of interest and reminiscence in his 

 house from the start. 



The natural color and grain of the wood give a 

 richness and simplicity to an interior that no art can 

 make up for. How the eye loves a genuine thing; 

 how it delights in the nude beauty of the wood ! A 

 painted surface is a blank, meaningless surface ; but 

 the texture and figure of the wood is full of expres- 

 sion. It is the principle of construction again appear- 

 ing in another field. How endless the variety of 

 figures that appear even in one kind of wood, and, 

 withal, how modest! The grainers do not imitate 

 oak. They cannot. Their surface glares ; their oak 

 is only skin-deep ; their figures put nature to shame. 



Oak is the wood to start with in trimming a house. 

 How clear and strong it looks ! It is the master 

 wood. When allowed to season in the log, it has a 

 richness and ripeness of tone that are delicious. We 

 have many kinds, as rock oak, black oak, red oak, 

 white oak, all equally beautiful in their place. Red 

 oak is the softest, and less liable to spring. By com- 

 bining two different kinds, as red oak and white oak 

 (white oak takes its name from the external color of 

 the tree, and not from the color of the wood, which 

 is dark amber color), a most pleasing effect is pro- 

 duced. 



