16 THE) STORY OR THE) OAK TRE)E) 
It is a brave fight the acorn puts up before the sapling 
grows big enough to take care of itself. Read what 
Robert Douglas says about this fight: 
“The acorn is the only seed I can think of which is left 
by Nature to take care of itself. It matures without pro¬ 
tection, falls heavily and helplessly to the ground to be 
eaten or trodden on by animals, yet the few which escape 
and those which are trodden under are well able to com¬ 
pete in the race for life. While the elm and maple seeds 
are drying up on the surface, the hickories and walnuts 
waiting to be cracked, the acorn is at work with its coat 
off. It drives its tap root into the earth in spite of grass 
and brush and litter. No matter if it is shaded by forest 
trees so that the sun cannot penetrate; it will manage to 
make a short stem and a few leaves the first season, 
enough to keep life in the root which will drill deeper 
and deeper. When age or accident removes the tree 
which has overshadowed it, then it will assert itself. 
Fires may run over the land destroying almost everything 
else; the oak will be killed to the ground but it will throw 
up a new shoot the next spring, the root will keep enlarg¬ 
ing and when the opportunity comes will make a vigorous 
growth and throw out strong side roots and often care 
no more for its tap root which has been its only support 
than the frog cares for the tail of the tadpole after it 
has got on its own legs.” 
