! Hickory-nuts and butternuts, too, perhaps hazelnuts and even
beechnuts--all these American boys and girls of the real country know.
In the far South, and, indeed, reaching well up into the Middle West,
the pecan holds sway, and a majestic sway at that, for its size makes it
the fellow of the great trees of the forest, worthy to be compared with
the chestnut, the walnut, and the hickory.

But it has usually been of nuts to eat that we have thought, and the
chance for palatable food has, just as with some of the best of the
so-called "fruit" trees--all trees bear fruit!--partially closed our
eyes to the interest and beauty of some of these nut-bearers.

My own tree acquaintance has proceeded none too rapidly, and I have
been--and am yet--as fond of the toothsome nuts as any one can be who is
not a devotee of the new fad that attempts to make human squirrels of us
all by a nearly exclusive nut diet. I think that my regard for a nut
tree as something else than a source of things to eat began when I came,
one hot summer day, under the shade of the great walnut at Paxtang. Huge
was its trunk and wide the spread of its branches, while the richness of
its foliage held at bay the strongest rays of the great luminary. How
could I help admiring the venerable yet lusty old tree, conferring a
present benefit, giving an instant and restful impression of strength,
solidity, and elegance, while promising as well, as its rounded green
clusters hung far above my head, a great crop of delicious nut-fruit
when the summer's sun it was so fully absorbing should have done its
perfect work!

Alas for the great black walnut of Paxtang! It went the way of many
another tree monarch whose beauty and living usefulness were no defense
against sordid vandalism. In the course of time a suburb was laid out,
including along its principal street, and certainly as its principal
natural ornament, this massive tree, around which the Indians who roamed
the "great vale of Pennsylvania" had probably gathered in council. The
sixty-foot "lot," the front of which the tree graced, fell to the
ownership of a man who, erecting a house under its beneficent
protection, soon complained of its shade. Then came a lumber prospector,
who saw only furniture in the still flourishing old black walnut. His
offer of forty dollars for the tree was eagerly accepted by the
Philistine who had the title to the land, and although there were not
wanting such remonstrances as almos