"If you had to choose," asked the great sculptor Constantin Meunier
one day, "would you have your house or one of these trees struck
by lightning?"

"The house," answered the botanist promptly, "for I could rebuild
it in a year; but to restore the tree would take three-quarters of
a century."

"Also," said the sculptor, with a smile, "you might change the
style of your house with advantage, but the style of these trees
you could never improve."

"But tell me," he continued, "is it true, as they say, that lightning
never strikes a beech?"

"It is not entirely true," replied the botanist, smiling in his
turn, "yet, like many ancient beliefs, it has some truth in it.
There is something in the texture of the beech that seems to resist
electricity better than other trees. It may be the fatness of the
wood. Whatever it is, I am glad of it, for it gives my trees a
better chance."

"Don't be too secure," said the sculptor, shaking his head. "There
are other tempests besides those in the clouds. When the next war
comes in western Europe Belgium will be the battle-field. Beech-wood
is very good to burn."

"God forbid," said the baron devoutly. "We have had peace for a
quarter of a century. Why should it not last?"