On account of its greatness, and its having so nice a body, father let it
stand as monarch of the clearing. But few came into our clearing without
seeing his majesty's presence. His roots were immense. They had been
centuries creeping and feeling their way along, extracting life from
mother earth to sustain their gigantic body. The acorn, from which that
oak grew, must have been planted long before, and the tree which grew
from it have been dressed many times in its summer robe of green, and it
was, doubtless, flourishing when the "Mayflower" left the English
Channel. When she was slowly making her way from billow to billow,
through the then almost unknown sea, bearing some of the most brave and
liberty-loving men and women the world, at that time, could produce; when
the hearts of the Pilgrim Fathers were beating high with hopes of liberty
and escape from tyranny, when their breath came low and short for fear of
what might await them; when they landed on the American shore--yes! when
that little band of pilgrims were kneeling on Plymouth Rock, and offering
up thanksgiving and praise to the Almighty, who had brought them safely
o'er the trackless deep, that oak was quietly standing, gathering
strength to make it what it was when we came to Michigan.
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