GETTING AC^AINTED fTITH THE TREES 



that have been borrowed from its humbler 

 neighbor in the forest. The shining green of 

 the laurel is seen in these oak leaves ; they are 

 also half evergreen, thus being one of the 

 family particularly belonging to our Southern 

 States, and hardly enduring the chill of the 

 vi'inters north of Virginia. It is one of the 

 galaxy of oaks I remember as providing a 

 special interest in the Georgia forests, where 

 the long- leaved pine also gave a new tree 

 sensation to the visitor from the North, who 

 at first could hardly imagine what those lovely 

 little green fountains of foliage were that he 

 saw along the roadside and in the woods. The 

 Georgia oaks seem to me to have a richness 

 of foliage, a color and substance and shine, 

 that compare only with the excellence of two 

 other products of the same State — the peach 

 and the watermelon. The long summer and 

 the plenitude of sunshine seem to weave into 

 these products luxuriance found nowhere else ; 

 and when one sees for the first time a happy, 

 rollicking bunch of round-eyed negro children, 

 innocent alike of much clothing or any trouble, 

 mixing up with the juicy Georgia melon under 



44 



