Felling the Trees 



IT is at least a mile to the place where the men 

 are going to work. The twinkling lights of their 

 lanterns serve as a guide over the white road. 

 The snow crunches under their feet, and frosty 

 snappings resound through the great forest. 

 Hundreds of tiny stars are fading from sight 

 overhead, and a large, full moon grows paler 

 and paler up among the treetops. In the east a 

 warm, red glow spreading over the dark sky, 

 shows that the sunrise is not far off. 



All too soon for the pleasure of the men the 

 end of the trip is reached, and the song of the ax 

 and saw begins on every hand. In the picture 

 on page 165, some of these men are seen just 

 starting to cut down a tall pine. One of them has 

 notched the tree on the farther side with an ax. 

 This notch makes the tree fall in the right direc- 

 tion, and prevents the splitting of the trunk. 



The notch being cut, the lumberjacks are 

 ready to use the crosscut saw. It is nearly 



163 



