OAK-TREE. 85 



blazed and flickered on the hearth. Filaments of my strong 

 bark, ingeniously formed into a kind of paper, were of old 

 constructed into spacious nests by the mason bee; the hornet 

 perforated my giant boughs, and reared her metropolis 

 unbidden ; the squirrel brought up her young family be- 

 neath the shelter of my branches ; and glad birds paid me 

 the tribute of their joyous songs in return for my protection. 

 Beautiful round balls were often seen upon my leaves, 

 resembling expanded rose-buds, the nests of insects, who 

 resorted hither, and elegant night butterflies spun their webs 

 beside them. Time would fail me, were I to speak of the 

 innumerable tribes that were sheltered within my bark, or 

 nestled in its interstices ; but now my leaves have faded, 

 and decay has begun its work. A few storms more, and 

 this aged frame will lie strewn beneath their might. Yet 

 pleasant, amid my sadness, is the thought that some one 

 may thus lament me : 



" Pride of the grove, and art thou down at last? 

 Oh, could not thy deep-rooted trunk avail 



