20 THE AUDUBON, BULUEE EES 
A Hospitable White Oak 
IFTY-FIVE years ago Grandfather Plumb, who was one of the first 
settlers of Streator, Illinois, built the large frame house on the bank 
of the Vermilion river, which is still occupied by the Plumb family. 
The house was then as now at the edge of town and about it are still 
standing the original trees that were among the reasons why the site was 
selected. In the yard and on the river bank are red, burr, white, black, 
and pin oaks; linden, black cherry, hackberry, sycamore, maples, 
willows, boxelder, red haws, wild crab apple, sumac, and white and black 
mulberries. 
With the trees are elderberries, black haws, wild grapes, bittersweet, 
woodpine, poison ivy, matrimony vine and gooseberries. 
Overshadowing all of these is my patriarchal white oak, gnarled and 
scarred, from age and winter storms, with many cavities in whose hos- 
pitable privacy have nested birds of various kinds, and squirrels. 


Photograph by Phil E. Church 
