TREES AT LEISURE 



covered with narrow flattened 

 scales that flake off untidily. 



The oak cannot be spared 

 from the winter landscape. It is 

 only when the oak stands bared 

 like a runner for a race that we 

 realize wherein its supremacy 

 lies. We have made it a synonym 

 of staunchness and sturdiness, 

 but not until we see naked the 

 massive trunk and the strong 

 limbs bent and gnarled for 

 thrusting back the blasts, can 

 we understand why the oak is 

 staunch. However, there are 

 oaks and oaks, and each one 

 fights time and tempest in its 

 own peculiar armor and in its 

 own brave way. The red, the 

 scarlet, and the black oaks 

 show a certain ruggedness as of 

 knotted sinews in their boles, 

 and their dark gray bark, irregu- 



[41] 



