THE GROWTH OF THE OAK 



oak of Glastonbury" has soothed and cheered 

 and rested, and taken me nearer the Giver of 

 all such good to restless humanity. 



Do I wonder at my friend who has built 

 his home where he may look always at this 

 white oak, or that he raged in anger when a 

 crabbed neighbor ruthlessly cut down a superb 

 tree of the same kind that was on his piop- 

 erty line, in order that he might run his 

 barbed -wire fence straight? No; I agree with 

 him that this tree -murderer has probably a 

 barbed-wire heart, and we expect that his 

 future existence will be treeless, at least! 



Sometimes this same white oak adapts itself 

 to the bank of a stream, though its true 

 character develops best in the drier ground. 

 Its strength has been its bane, for the value 

 of its timber has caused many a great isolated 

 specimen to be cut down. It is fine to know 

 that some States — Massachusetts, Connecticut, 

 and Rhode Island also, I think — have given 

 to trees along highways, and in situations where 

 they are part of the highway landscape, the 

 protection of a wise law. Under this law each 

 town appoints a tree-warden, serving without 



35 



