Tutor-George-Harry.

Tut. Come, my boys, let us sit down awhile under yon shady tree. I don't know how your young legs feel, but mine are almost tired.

Geo. I am not tired, but I am very hot.
Har. And I am hot, and very dry too.

Tut. When you have cooled yourself you may drink out of that clear brook. In the mean time we will read a little out of a book I have in my pocket.

[They go and sit down at the foot of the tree.] Har. What an amazing large tree! How wide its branches spread! Pray what tree is it?

Geo. I can tell you that. It is an oak. Don't you see the acorns?

Tut. Yes, it is an oak-the noblest tree this country produces :-not only grand and beautiful to the sight, but of the greatest importance from its uses.

Har. I should like to know something about it. Tut. Very well; then instead of reading, we will sit and talk about oaks. George, you knew the oak by its acorns-should you have known it if there had been none?

Geo. I don't know-I believe not.

Tut. Observe, then, in the first place, that its bark is very rugged. Then see in what manner it grows. Its great arms run out almost horizontally from its trunk, giving the whole tree a sort of round form, and making it spread far on every side. Its branches are also subject to be crooked, or kneed. By these marks you might guess at an oak even in winter, when quite bare of leaves. But its leaves afford a surer mark of distinction, since they differ a good deal from those of other trees; being neither whole and even at the edges, nor yet cut like the teeth of a saw, but rather deeply scolloped, and formed into several rounded divisions. Their colour is a fine deep green. Then the fruit

Har. Fruit!

Tut. Yes-all kinds of plants have what may properly be called fruit, though we are apt to give that name only to such as are food for man. The fruit of a plant is the seed, with what contains it. This, in the oak, is called an acorn, which is a kind of nut, partly enclosed in a cup.

Geo. Acorn cups are very pretty things. I

have made boats of them, and set them a swimming in a basin.

Tut. And if you were no bigger than a fairy you might use them for drinking cups, as those imaginary little beings are said to do.

Pearly drops of dew we drink

In acorn cups fill'd to the brink.

Har. Are acorns good to eat?

Geo. No, that they are not. I have tried, and did not like them at all.

Tut. In the early ages of man, before he cultivated the earth, but lived upon such wild products as nature afforded, we are told that acorns made a considerable part of his food ; and at this day I believe they are eaten in some countries. But this is in warmer climates, where they probably become sweeter and better-flavoured than with us. The chief use we make of them is to feed hogs. In those parts of England where oak woods are common, great herds of swine are kept, which are driven into the woods in autumn, when the acorns fall, and provide for themselves plentifully for two or three months. This, however, is a small part of the praise of the oak. You will be surprised when I tell you, that to this tree our country owes its chief glory and security.

Har. Aye, how can that be!

Tut. I don't know whether in your reading you have ever met with the story, that Athens, a famous city in Greece, consulting the oracle how it might best defend itself against its enemies, was advised to trust to wooden walls.

Har. Wooden walls!-that's odd-I should

think stone walls better, for wooden ones might be set on fire.

Tut. True; but the meaning was, that as Athens was a place of great trade, and its people were skilled in maritime affairs, they ought to trust to their ships. Well, this is the case with Great Britain. As it is an island, it has no need of walls and fortifications while it possesses ships to keep all enemies at a distance. Now, we have the greatest and finest navy in the world, by which we both defend ourselves, and attack other nations when they insult us; and this is all built of oak.

Geo. Would no other wood do to build ships? Tut. None nearly so well, especially for men of war; for it is the stoutest and strongest wood we have; and therefore best fitted, both to keep sound under water, and to bear the blows and shocks of waves, and the terrible strokes of cannon balls. It is a peculiar excellence for this last purpose, that oak is not so liable to splinter or shiver as other woods, so that a ball can pass through it without making a large hole. Did you never hear the old song.

Hearts of oak are our ships, hearts of oak are our men, &c. Geo. No.

Tut. It was made at a time when England was more successful in war than had ever before been known, and our success was properly attributed chiefly to our fleet, the great support of which is the British oak; so I hope you will henceforth look upon oaks with due respect.

Har. Yes-it shall always be my favourite tree.

Tut. Had not Pope reason, when he said in his Windsor Forest,

Let India boast her plants, nor envy we
The weeping amber, or the balmy tree,

While by our Oaks the precious loads are borne,
And realms commanded which those trees adorn?

These lines refer to its use as well for merchant ships as for men of war; and in fact all our ships are built either of native or foreign oak. Geo. Are the masts of ships made of oak? Tut. No-it would be to heavy.

Besides, it would not be easy to find trunks of oak long and straight enough for that purpose. They are made of various kinds of fir or pine, which grow very tall and taper.

Geo. Is oak wood used for any thing besides ship building?

Tut. O yes!—It is one of the principal woods of the carpenter, being employed wherever great strength and durability are required. It is used for door and window frames, and the beams that are laid in walls to strengthen them. Floors and stair cases are sometimes made with it; and in old houses in the country, which were built when oak was more plentiful than at present, almost all the timber about them is oak. It is also occasionally used for furniture, as tables, chairs, drawers, and bed-steads; though mahogany has now much taken its place for the better sort of goods, and the lighter and softer woods for the cheaper for the hardness of oak renders it difficult and expensive to work. It is still, however, the chief material used in mill-work, in bridge and water works, for waggon and cart bodies, for large casks and tubs, and for the last piece of furniture a man has occasion for. What is that, do you think, George?

Geo. I don't know.