THE GROTFTH OF THE OAK 



the shade of a luxuriant oak, he gets a new 

 conception of at least one part of the race 

 problem! 



One of the things I wanted much to see 

 when I first traveled South was the famed live- 

 oak, the majesty and the mournfulness of 

 which had been long sung into me. Perhaps 

 I expected too much, as I did of the palmetto, 

 another part of my quest, but surely there was 

 disappointment when I was led, on the banks 

 of the Manatee River in Florida, to see a 

 famous live-oak. It was tall and grand, but 

 its adornment of long, trailing gray Spanish 

 moss, which was to have attached the sadness 

 to it, seemed merely to make it unkempt and 

 uncomfortable. I was instantly reminded of a 

 tree at home in the far North that I had never 

 thought particularly beautiful, but which now, 

 by comparison, took on an attractiveness it has 

 never since lost. Imagine a great spreading 

 weeping willow turned dingy gray, and you 

 have a fair picture of a moss-covered live-oak ; 

 but you will prefer it green, as is the willow, 

 I believe. 



One day a walk about Savannah, which city 



45 



