Evenings at Home; Or, The Juvenile Budget Opened. John Aikin

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СКАЧАТЬ so loud and looks so fierce, that we were afraid he would break his chain.

      Tut. I doubt you are a couple of cowards. However, I suppose you came near enough to observe great stacks of bark in the yard.

      Geo. O yes; there are several.

      Tut. Those are oak-bark, and it is used in tanning the hides.

      Har. What does it do to them?

      Tut. I’ll tell you. The hide, when taken from the animal, after being steeped in lime and water to get off the hair and grease, is put to soak in a liquor made by steeping oak-bark in water. This liquor is strongly astringent, or binding, and has the property of converting skin into leather. The change which the hide thus undergoes renders it at the same time less liable to decay, and soft and pliable when dry; for raw skins, by drying, acquire nearly the hardness and consistence of horn. Other things are also tanned for the purpose of preserving them, as fishing-nets and boat-sails. This use of the bark of the oak makes it a very valuable commodity; and you may see people in the woods carefully stripping the oaks when cut down, and piling up the bark in heaps.

      Geo. I have seen such heaps of bark, but I thought they were only to burn.

      Tut. No; they are much too valuable for that. Well, but I have another use of the oak to mention, and that is in dying.

      Har. Dying! I wonder what colour it can die?

      Tut. Oak sawdust is a principal ingredient in dying fustians. By various mixtures and management it is made to give them all the different shades of drab and brown. Then, all the parts of the oak, like all other astringent vegetables, produce a dark blue or black by the addition of any preparation of iron. The bark is sometimes used in this way for dying black. And did you never see what the boys call an oak-apple?

      Geo. Yes; I have gathered them myself.

      Tut. Do you know what they are?

      Geo. I thought they were the fruit of the oak.

      Tut. No; I have told you that the acorns are the fruits. These are excrescences formed by an insect.

      Geo. An insect! how can they make such a thing?

      Tut. It is a sort of fly, that has the power of piercing the outer skin of the oak boughs, under which it lays its eggs. The part then swells into a kind of ball, and the young insects, when hatched, eat their way out. Well this ball or apple is a pretty strong astringent, and is sometimes used in dying black. But in the warm countries there is a species of oak which bears round excrescences of the same kind, called galls, which become hard, and are the strongest astringents known. They are the principal ingredients in the black dies, and common ink is made with them, together with a substance called green vitriol, or copperas, which contains iron.

      I have now told you the chief uses that I can recollect of the oak; and these are so important, that whoever drops an acorn into the ground, and takes proper care of it when it comes up, may be said to be a benefactor to his country. Besides, no sight can be more beautiful and majestic than a fine oak-wood. It is an ornament fit for the habitation of the first nobleman in the land.

      Har. I wonder, then, that all rich gentlemen who have ground enough do not cover it with oaks.

      Tut. Many of them, especially of late years, have made great plantations of these trees. But all soils do not suit them; and then there is another circumstance which prevents many from being at this trouble and expense, which is the long time an oak takes in growing, so that no person can reasonably expect to profit by those of his own planting. An oak of fifty years is greatly short of its full growth, and they are scarcely arrived at perfection under a century. However, it is our duty to think of posterity as well as ourselves; and they who receive oaks from their ancestors, ought certainly to furnish others to their successors.

      Har. Then I think that every one who cuts down an oak should be obliged to plant another.

      Tut. Very right—but he should plant two or three for one, for fear of accidents in their growing.

      I will now repeat to you some verses describing the oak in its state of full growth, or rather of beginning to decay, with the various animals living upon it—and then we will walk.

      “See where yon Oak its awful structure rears,

      The massy growth of twice a hundred years;

      Survey his rugged trunk with moss o’ergrown,

      His lusty arms in rude disorder thrown,

His forking branches wide at distance spread,

      And dark’ning half the sky, his lofty head.

      A mighty castle, built by Nature’s hands,

      Peopled by various living tribes, he stands.

      His airy top the clamorous rooks invest,

      And crowd the waving boughs with many a nest.

      Midway the nimble squirrel builds his bower;

      And sharp-billed pies the insect tribes devour

      That gnaw beneath the bark their secret ways,

      While unperceived the stately pile decays.”

ALFRED.—A Drama.

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PERSONS OF THE DRAMA.
Alfred	King of England.
Gubba	a Farmer.
Gandelin	his Wife.
Ella	an Officer of Alfred.

Scene—The Isle of Athelney.

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      Alfred. How retired and quiet is everything in this little spot! The river winds its silent waters round this retreat; and the tangled bushes of the thicket fence it from the attack of an enemy. The bloody Danes have not yet pierced into this wild solitude. I believe I am safe from their pursuit. But I hope I shall find some inhabitants here, otherwise I shall die of hunger. Ha! here is a narrow path through the wood, and I think I see the smoke of a cottage rising between the trees. I will bend my steps thither.

Scene—Before the Cottage.

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      Gubba coming forward. Gandelin, within.

      Alfred. СКАЧАТЬ