Jack did not make any pretense at hurrying. He was taking his time, it seemed, and enjoying the scenery around him. A thousand things called for exclamation of delight, for the woods looked especially 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 58 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. 59 “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 ones. Steve wondered whether he might not be saving his film for something more important. Even the thought gave a delicious little thrill, his imagination was so highly excited by now.
Then came the time when Jack, taking another look aloft, announced that the sun had reached his zenith, or nearest point overhead. That was good news for Steve, although truth to tell he had for some time been slily nibbling at the contents of one of the packages he carried in his pockets, unable to resist the temptation while the opportunity was within his grasp.