pecially grand with
the sun glinting on the green foliage of the various trees, some of
which were veritable forest monarchs.

Once before noon arrived, Jack stopped short. The largest tree thus far
encountered confronted them. Just what size butt it had I should be
afraid to say, for fear I might not be believed, but it was perfectly
enormous.

"I must try to get a shot at that dandy oak," said Jack, with bubbling
enthusiasm, such as becomes an amateur photographer who loves his
calling. "Never have I set eyes on such a majestic king of the woods.
I'm sure it will make a splendid picture with you standing alongside,
Steve, just to show its enormous girth. The pity of it is that I can't
dream of trying to get the whole tree in the picture, for no camera
could do that in these dense woods, where you can't get far away from
the object you're photographing."

He found that the side toward the sun was after all the best for his
purpose, and accordingly, after a little maneuvering, Jack secured a
picture of the tremendous monarch of the woods.

"I guess now he was a pretty hefty old tree when Columbus discovered
America," said Steve, afterwards, as he tried to measure the butt by
passing around it many times with his arms fully extended. "Just think
of all the stirring events in history that this giant has outlived. It
makes a fellow look up with respect, and feel as if he wanted to take
off his cap to the patriarch, doesn't it, Jack?"

"You give him the right name when you say that, for a fact, Steve;
because there's no way of our telling just how many hundred years he has
stood right in this same spot."

"Well, I'm glad I'm not a tree," grinned Steve, "because it must be
terribly monotonous staying all your life rooted to the ground, and
never seeing anything of this beautiful world. As for me, I want to
travel when I grow up, and look on every foreign land. Going on now,
Jack, are you? Soon be time to take a little noon rest, and lighten the
loads we're carrying in our pockets."

"Given half an hour more and it'll be noon," Jack informed him, after
taking a look aloft to where the beaming sun was high in the heavens. "I
never like to eat lunch until then, so let's wait a bit. Besides, I'm
not quite as hungry as I ought to be to do justice to all that stuff you
put in my pockets."

After that Jack did not seem anxious to snap off further pictures,
though they came across a number that would have made excellent on