Just at this time, they were ascending a hill, and, after pa.s.sing over the summit of it, they came to a place where Forester said he saw, in the woods, a number of young oaks and beeches, which, he said, would make good canes. The oak, he said, was very strong, and hard, and tough; so was the beech.

"Only there are two objections to them for canes," said Forester, as they were getting out of the wagon; "they are not so light as the pine, and then, besides, they are apt to grow crooked. We must look about carefully to find some that are straight."

"Which is the most valuable of all the kinds of wood?" asked Marco.

"The question is ambiguous," said Forester.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Marco.

"I mean, that it has two significations," replied Forester; "that is, the word valuable has two significations. Pine is the most valuable in one sense; that is, pine is, on the whole, most useful to mankind. But there are other kinds of wood which are far more costly."

"I should not think that pine would be so valuable," said Marco, "it is so weak and brittle."

"It is valuable," said Forester, "because, for the purpose for which men want the greatest quant.i.ties of wood, strength is not required. For boarding the outsides of buildings, for example, and finishing them within, which uses, perhaps, consume more wood than all others put together, no great strength is required."

"I think people want more wood to _burn_ than to build houses with,"

said Marco.

"Yes," said Forester, "perhaps they do. They do in this country, I think, but perhaps not in Europe and other old countries. But pine, although it has no great strength, is an excellent wood for building, it is so soft and easily worked."

Forester's remarks, upon the different kinds of wood, were here interrupted by Marco's finding what he considered an excellent stick for a cane. When he had cut it, however, he found that it was not so straight as it had appeared to be while growing.

However, after some time spent in the selection, Marco and Forester both procured excellent canes.

"This is good, hard wood," said Marco, as he was tr.i.m.m.i.n.g his cane, and cutting it to a proper length.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

"Yes," said Forester; "it is beech, and beech is very hard."

After finishing their canes, they took their seats in the wagon again.

CHAPTER VI.

EBONY AND PINE.

After riding along a short distance in silence, Marco introduced the subject of the different woods once more. He asked Forester which was the most _costly_ of all the woods.

"Costly is not an ambiguous term," said Forester; "that means, which has the greatest _money_ value."

"Yes," said Marco. "I suppose it is mahogany."

"O no," said Forester.

"Rose wood, then," said Marco. "It must be rose wood. My mother has a beautiful piano made of rose wood."

"No," said Forester. "Ebony is more costly than either rose wood or mahogany. They sell ebony by the pound."

"Where does ebony come from?" asked Marco.

"I don't know," replied Forester.

"I should like to know," said Marco. "How much do they sell it for, by the pound?"

"I don't know that, either," said Forester. "I know very little about it, only that it is a very costly wood, on account of some peculiar properties which it has, and its scarcity."

"What are the peculiar properties?" asked Marco.

"One is, its great hardness," said Forester. "It is very hard indeed.

Another is, its color."

"What color is it?" asked Marco.

"Black," replied Forester,--"black as jet; at least, one kind is black as jet. There is a kind which is brown. It is called brown ebony."

"I don't think black is very pretty," said Marco.

"No," said Forester; "there does not seem to be much beauty in black, in itself considered; but then, for certain purposes, it is much handsomer than any other color would be; for a cane, for instance."

Marco looked at the beech cane which he had before him, and began to consider how it would look if it were black.

"I suppose I could paint my cane black," said he, after a moment's pause, "if you think it would be any better."

"No," said Forester; "I should prefer having it of its natural color.

The bark of the beech has beautiful colors, if they are only brought out by a coat of varnish."

"Brought out?" repeated Marco.

"Yes," said Forester. "There is a kind of fine dust, or something like that, which dims the bark; but, when you put on oil or varnish, there is a sort of transparency given to the outside coating, which brings the natural color of the bark fully to view."

"Then I will get my cane varnished, when I get to Bath," said Marco.

"Ebony," said Forester, "is used a great deal where a contrast with ivory is wanted. Ebony is hard and fine-grained, like ivory, and it takes a high polish. So, whenever they want a contrast of black and white, they take ebony and ivory."

"When do they want a contrast between black and white?"

"One case," replied Forester, "is that of the keys of a piano forte.

They want the short keys, which mark the semi-tones, of a different color from the others, so that the eye will catch them as quick as possible. So in a chess-board. They sometimes make chess-boards with alternate squares of ebony and ivory."

"I think it would be just as well to take common wood and paint it black," said Marco, "rather than pay so much money for ebony."

"No," said Forester, "that would not do so well. The paint would wear off; or, if it did not wear off by handling, still, if it got a little knock or hard rub, a part would come off, and that would show a little spot which would be of the natural color of the wood. This would look very badly."

"Then, besides, painted wood," continued Forester, "cannot be finished off so smoothly, and polished up so highly, as a wood which is black by nature. They have a way of _staining_ wood, however, which is better than painting it."