148 THE HUMAN SIDE OF TREES 



dred and sixty-nine years had been hailed as the 

 preserver of the liberties of the Colony of Con- 

 necticut and as the "Charter Oak" had attained 

 country-wide prominence. The story is contained 

 in every school boy's history-book, but possibly we 

 can enliven it with fresh piquancy by imagining 

 that the tree related the tale with its own leaves 

 a year or so before its death. 



It waved its upper branches a little grandly as 

 it began. "For many months in the year 1687 I 

 was all that stood between the people of Con- 

 necticut and tyranny. On October 31st of that fall 

 one Edmund Andross appeared before the colonial 

 assembly at Hartford and demanded that it sur- 

 render to him its royal charter. He spoke as the 

 governor-general of all New England, having been 

 just sent out from the mother country in that ex- 

 alted capacity by the recently crowned James II. 

 He had been ordered to confiscate all charters here- 

 tofore granted and to rule only as the King de- 

 creed. 



"The assembly received Governor Andross 

 courteously, even aimably, and settled down to dis- 

 cuss the matter. So well did they argue that the 

 conference ran on into the evening and the time 

 for the lighting of candles. When it had become 

 quite dark the lights were suddenly extinguished 



