Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1871-02-15
The Great BO-tree.

Old farmer Boyce brought in an arm
full of wood and filled the stove with it;
then he sat down to get warm, for it
was terribly cold day; and, as he sat
his face was very sober indeed.
MIR. BOyce,' asked, what are you
thinking of?
4 was thinking he said slowly about
that wood just put in the fire. When
I chopped down the tree it was part of,
I thought from its size that it was very
old one, so I counted the grains. They
say there is one grain added every year.
Now, there were five bundled grains in
that pine. Only think of it Nature
has worked five hundred years, just to
keep my family and myself warm for
few weeks ?
Farmer Boyce, 1 said, do you know
how many years it is since the oldest
tree people know anything about was
planted?
well, no. he answered; but I don't
believe it is any older than that pine
was'
Now, the good farmer knows great
deaI-so much, in fact, that 1 feel very
foolish sometimes when try to talk
with him; and yet am the schOOlmaam.
But happen to know something about
this subject, for 1 once Travelled a great
way with my father and mother, who
had been sent as missionaries to HindO-
stan; and my father noticed, and talked
about, all the mOnstrous trees he saw.
eWelI,' said to the good old farmer,
4 saw an oak tree in England, called
the Conqueror's Oak, which is known to
be more than 900 years old; and there
are yew trees'that were alive !, 200 years
ago, near an old abbey in the same
country
How large was that oak y said the
gentleman.
'Oh, very large indeed 1 answered;
lit must have measured thirty feet
around
'And do you call that a very large
tree y said Mr.. Gray, a young gentle
man from California, who had been
sitting silent till now; bless me, if I
haven't danced Oh the trunk of a tree
that was forty feet across one hundred
and twenty feet around What do you
think of that? California beats the
world at everything, even trees
There is a picture in my geography
Iisped little Nettie, 'Of tree with ever
so many trunks
yes, indeed I added, that is the
banyan tree, I saw great many of
them in India. There is one on the
Ner-buddah river called by the HindOOs
-beer-burr, after some saint whom
they worship; and it takes 1000 feet of
rope to stretch around all its largest
trunks, though there were only 400 Of
those! There have been many floods
that have swept away parts of the tree
besides. What do you think of CalifOr-
MAS beating the world now p
'Oh, well, answered Mr.. Gray, that
is really 400 trees after all; I'll warrant,
in all your travels, schoolma'am, you
never saw one tree alone as large as l
told of
'pll tell you what l have seen,' l said,
'Tve seen the sacred Bo-tree!
Like enough = said farmer BOyce,
grinning; young ladies would be sure to
see beaU-tree if there was one to be.
seenp
THAT Bo-tree, 1 went on very gravely
indeed, which. ] suppose .the greatest
and most wonderful, as well as the old
est tree in all the world, was planted in
the city on the island Of CeylOn called
AnaraiapOOra.'
oh, schoolma'am = sighed Nettie,
that word makes me feel as if had the
toOthache.i
who planted it, I should like to
know" asked Mr.. BOyce.
i think it was king, but 1 am not
sure. 1t was planted 2SS years before
Christ was born, and so it must be about
2,159 years old. They have kept ac-
count of its age, and all that happened
to it, because some one call prophet,
said when it was planted, that it Should
flourish and be green forever No one
ever breaks off the smallest twig, but
people watch under it sometimes a long
while, till leaf falls; then they pick
the leaf up, and keep it always, as if it
was very precious
But how does the Bo-tree look?' ask
ed dear little Nettie, who was a great
pet of mine, because she never came
to her class with a poor lesson.
'Oh,' said, it looks as old as the hills.
It reaches out so far that the people
have built walls to hold up its great
branches, and you have to climb q num-