LIFE OF AN OAK TREE. 
Long centuries have come and passed 
Since, in a stormy wind, 
An acorn fell one autumn day, 
Like thousands of his kind. 
The. wild swine fed in the forests then, 
And hungry beasts were they; 
They crunched the mast where’er it fell, 
And they feasted well that day. 
But as they trampled all about 
With heavy hoofs, they trod 
That acorn—perchance hundreds more— 
Deep in the yielding sod. 
Years came and went.—The acorn grew 
And became a young Oak tree; 
With a slender, straight, and flexile stem. 
Dressed in rich greenery. >• 
Time passeth on.—The young tree rose 
A bold and noble thing; 
Each summer showed a leafier crest, 
And a longer shoot each spring. 
There came into the ancient wood 
Some stern official men; 
They marked the fairest, loftiest trees, 
And t.hfiv were doomed then. 
