Shooting 117 



tain in his own mind he never had any luck 

 fishing if he chanced to wet his hne first where 

 ash roots ran into the water. 



The oaks, and even the flat-woods, had a 

 charm all their own. Things grew in the 

 flat-woods not to be found anywhere else. 

 Holly-bushes for example, not plentifully, but 

 enough of them to make looking for them hope- 

 ful work. Holly,according to tradition, sprang 

 upfirstin the footprints of our Saviour — hence 

 the beasts of the field reverence it and never 

 feed on it. Hence too its use at Christmas. 

 Everybody knows it is bad luck to take down 

 Christmas holly before Old Christmas Day, 

 otherwise Twelfth Night. Joe had read in 

 his forest books how complaints in the swain- 

 mote, the forest. court, were sworn to, upon a 

 holly wand, instead of a Bible. Dan had told 

 him further weird tales of the holly's power : 

 — how if you walked under it after dark, you 

 would " dream true " — and in general dream 

 very ill — and what dangers waited upon dig- 

 ging it up, or even around it. As for cutting 

 one down — that \yas not to be thought of, if 

 you did not care to be conjured for life. And 

 when you went hollying for Christmas, some- 

 thing bad would surely happen to you, if you 

 failed to bow and say " Thank you " to each 

 tree you plundered. 



Indian pipe also grew in the oak woods — 



