IO 
THE STORY OF THE OAK TREE 
of the tree. The tall mother tree needs a constant supply 
of food, it needs a certain evenness of climate and it 
must have sunlight, but it knows how to build for its 
seed such a close woven coat that the seed can go to sleep 
for years and forget all about food and shelter. 
The acorn is not as hardy as some other seeds. It must 
have a certain amount of moisture; if it dries up, it dies. 
Naturally, a big clumsy seed like an acorn cannot travel 
on the wind. Many seeds too heavy to be blown by the 
breeze are carried by birds; a bird will alight and walk 
about on muddy ground, and when it rises into the air soil 
sticks to its feet. In the soil seeds may be hidden; when 
the earth dries on the bird’s feet, the seeds fall to the 
ground. There are seeds, like the apple seed, with coats 
so tough the birds cannot digest them; when a robin, 
pecking at an apple, swallows an apple seed the seed 
passes through the bird’s body and drops to earth. 
But birds do not carry acorns. When a ripe acorn 
falls, its first wish, if it has any wishes, is to get away 
from under the branches of the parent tree. It can¬ 
not grow there, because those leafy branches will shade 
away the sunlight it loves, and those big roots will reach 
out and absorb the food in the earth for yards around, 
so that there will not be enough left for the hungry little 
acorn. So the acorn lies there and lies there, helpless. 
Once or twice the wind turns it over, and once a boy 
