Vergil in his
eclogues paid tribute to their beauty and grandeur. They guarded the
Druids' sacred fire and some of them are living yet which gave shelter
to the victorious legions of William the Conqueror when he crossed the
channel more than two thousand years ago. Hearts of oak made the ships
which helped a nation fight her way to the supremacy of the sea and
also the caravels which bore an intrepid discoverer across the weary
waste of waters to the threshold of the new home for all those seeking
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Some of your ancestors
made the log cabins to shelter the band of pioneers led by the pious
Hooker into the valley of the Connecticut and another preserved the
precious charter until the storm of tyranny had passed. It is your
family, old tree, which has lent itself willingly to the service of
man, in the comfort and stability of his home and in the panels and
carvings which adorn the great cathedrals he has built for the worship
of his Creator and the enrichment of his own soul."
Still the old tree listens. The heart warms toward it as memory speaks
of its companionship through the years:
"And I have watched you, old tree, in storm and in sunshine; in the
early winter when the soft snow stuck fast to your rugged old trunk
and your branches and twigs and made you a picture of purity; and in
the later winter when the fierce storms wrestled in vain with your
sinewy limbs.
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