CHAPTER II 
The Acorn, the Root and the Seedling Oak 
Every boy and girl knows what an acorn looks like. 
Haven’t you ever found an acorn with a bulging, curly 
end made of tiny woody scales, and pulled the end off 
and hollowed out the nut to make a cup and saucer? 
Acorns from the red oak make the best cups and saucers, 
and acorns from the scarlet oak make the best tops for 
spinning. They are small tops, of course, but they whirl 
as merrily as any of your big, showy, painted ones. 
Every tree bears 
its fruit; just as the 
apple is the fruit of 
the apple tree, so is 
the acorn the fruit of 
the oak. And in the 
fruit lies the seed. 
Warm and dry and 
Cup and Saucer made from Acorns 
of Red Oak 
protected, when in Autumn the ripe fruit falls from the 
branch the seed sleeps there in its acorn coat, waiting 
to be planted, waiting for Spring and the feel of the moist 
earth pressing its sides to waken it once more to life 
and growth. 
We humans think we are great travellers, and so we 
are, some of us. But plants travel too, they journey 
