No doubt if anyone had carefully examined the tree he would have observed signs of decay long before the rooks abandoned it; but those who pass the same trees day after day for years do not observe minute changes, or, if they do, as nature is slow in her movements, get so accustomed to the sight of the fungi about the base, and the opening in the bark where the decomposing touchwood shows, as to think that it will always be so.
"Wild Life in a Southern County"
Richard Jefferies
Now do you two run about and pick up all the dried sticks you can find, and pile them together in a heap, while I get the touchwood ready.
"Yellow-Cap and Other Fairy-Stories For Children"
Julian Hawthorne
It was a mass of touchwood in the hollow of a tree.
"With Axe and Rifle"
W.H.G. Kingston