where the gentle birds may dwell in 
quiet, far from enemies In the 
winter season, however, nothing can 
be less propitiating The thorn-spines 
jag out in clusters on every angry bole 
and branch. 
But as | have said, next to the 
locust is the shell-bark hickory Sum- 
mer or winter it curls up its lips like a 
bull-cur. As a child I used to be 
insulted by them, though like crusty 
people I have known, they would snar! 
at you and make you merry at the 
same minute; for when fall frosts whiten 
the house-tops a little, | was wont to 
go to the woods of the Marais Des 
Cygnes and find a hail of hickory nuts 
slanting to earth; and I would make 
merry beneath the branches, getting 
oftentimes a sound rap on the head 
by a friendly nut on its way to the 
autumn leaves lying thick upon the 
ground. But surly the  shell-bark 
hickory is. Great flakes of its bark 
curling inevitably from the trunk, as 
you have seen old shingles curl from 
an ancient roof, dyed black as darkness 
in long years of rain and drench of 
summer sun. Surly the shell-barks are, 
but beautiful. I have loved to love 
them more than I will here set down, 
lest some who read should think me 
foolish; I pass no one of them in my 
wanderings without stopping to watch 
its ill-fit of garments and truculence of 
demeanor. A ~baby shell-bark is 
Vy 
| 
4 
\ 
RBG sus 
