THK NUTHATCH 



AN OAK TREE 



day runs up and down its branches and shyly peeps 

 round their hidden sides ; happy in his ignorance, he 

 daily re-examines the same haunts, the very crevices 

 of its crinkled bark (his larder and his anvil) are 

 known to him. Where is his ambition? has he none? 

 Why does he not fly to other woods and other trees 

 and so explore the world ? The world ! the world of 

 which he is a part and yet knows nothing. How 

 absurd it seems that he should under- 

 stand and realise but little of it, as we 

 know it in its complexity, its pleasures, 

 its glitter and gold and glamour, its 

 striving after wealth, power and fame, 

 its bickering and bargaining, its petty 

 trials, its hells of selfishness and war. 

 Of these he knows nothing, nor can 

 ever even conceive of their existence 

 in the sphere in which he plays his part. GE RMS OF GIANTS 



WITH A THOUSAND 



ignorant or the very tree in which he spends so YEARS OF LIFE 



much of his life : we realise his limitations and pity 

 his ignorance ; how much in life he misses ! For do 

 not we (the lords of creation) know all this, do we not 

 know 7 and understand the conditions which brought 



O 



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