"These are not the only ones of my 

 ancestors who were connected with 

 kings. You have heard of King Arthur 

 and his Knights of the Round Table! 

 There is in Winchester a table made of 

 one slice of oak, which is eighteen feet 

 in diameter; it has been there at least 

 seven hundred years, and is said to be 

 the very table round which King Arthur 

 and his sixty knights gathered. King 

 Charles II lay hidden for a whole day 

 in the widespreading branches of an 

 oak and, through the screen of leaves, 

 watched the red-coats hunting for him. 

 A follower of his, Sir John Ross, lay 

 hidden many days in the heart of an 

 oak tree, which had a. door made of its 

 own bark; and no person who was not 

 in the secret could tell that the tree was 

 hollow. 



"You have, no doubt, heard of the 

 famous Charter Oak of Hartford, which 

 was beheved to be several centuries 

 old. When the first settlers were clear- 

 ing their land, the Indians begged that 

 it might be spared. "It has been the 

 guide of our fathers for centuries," they 

 said, "as to the time of planting our 

 corn; when the leaves are the size of a 

 mouse's ears, then is the time to put 

 the seed in the ground." Their request 

 was granted, and the tree, afterwards 

 becoming the custodian of the lost char- 

 ter, became famous for aiU time. "It 

 fell during a windstorm over half a cen- 

 tury ago, and so deeply was it ven- 

 erated that at sunset of that day the 

 bells tolled and a band of music played 

 funeral dirges over its prostrate form. 

 Think of that! Was ever a tree so hon- 

 ored? Think of the grandeur, the sol- 

 emnity of that scene!" He seemed 

 absorbed in that long-past event, and 

 tossed his great branches mournfully, 

 as if joining in the requiem. Then he 

 seemed to say, as if to himself: 



"Man reckons his days by years; we 



by centuries. We strike our tap-root 



down deep into the ground and send 



out widespreading horizontal roots near 



I the surface. 'As sturdy as an oak' is 



> often said, and why? Because we take 



such firm hold on life that should we 



be cut off by accident or razed to the 



\ ground by fire, we throw up a new shoot 



1 the next spring. Our very poise de- 



1 notes strength, and this quality is pres- 



ent in the humblest member of our 

 family. We are counted the most ma- 

 jestic of forest trees. What the lion is 

 among quadrupeds, the eagle among 

 birds, that are we to the trees of the 

 temperate zone. We are the emblem 

 of grandeur, of strength and duration. 

 It takes us three centuries to attain our 

 growth, for three centuries more we are 

 in our prime, and again, three centuries 

 to die. 



"I am sorry to say, that we are driv- 

 ing the family of my friend, the Pine, to 

 the sands, and why? Because the Pine 

 is handicapped in its race for life. As 

 soon as it is cut down its root dies; 

 it has not the vigor, the power to send 

 forth new shoots from the stump; then, 

 too, its seed depends upon the wind. Its 

 seed is light, its vitality fleeting, and it 

 must find favorable conditions at once 

 or its chance is gone. With us, it is 

 different; we can take care of ourselves; 

 with some of our family, an acorn no 

 sooner touches the ground ere it sends 

 out a shoot and is ready to take a hold 

 on the earth; again, there are others 

 which can wait when necessary. 



"We, too, go down to the sea in 

 ships; and I have been told that there 

 are fish there with swords three feet 

 long, and so strong that they can ram 

 the sword through eight inches of oak. 

 You have heard of Eng-land's 'hearts of 

 oak.' Before the days of ironclads, 

 England's ships were built of oak, 

 hence the name. It is said that quite 

 a little forest was cut down for every 

 great vessel built; that it required two 

 thousand two hundred trees for a sev- 

 enty-four-gun ship. 



"One of the branches of our family 

 has a beautiful cup, the scales of wdiich 

 are so large and free that they give 

 it a mossy appearance; moreover, the 

 rim is beautifully fringed, and so fairly 

 embraces the nut as to cover three- 

 fourths of its surface. The young 

 branches often have corky wings, which 

 finally disappear as they grow older. 

 Now, you will remember that the cork 

 of commerce is the outer bark of an 

 oak tree native to Southern Europe; 

 and this makes the action of the Bur 

 Oak more interesting." 



The White Oak paused, and the maid- 

 en, gazing up into the leafy branches, 



79 



