19 



Given those conditions, the white -oak 

 that is his prey may end its usefulness in 

 fair France or even twice cross blue water, 

 and bring back over sea wine o' Burgundy; 

 thin, sour, light claret ; or even the yellow, 

 mellow Spanish liquor o' Xeres. If they 

 have forests over there, those good vine- 

 growers, they have need to conserve them. 

 Since the days of flat-boat commerce the 

 Mississippi has borne yearly to the Cres- 

 cent City an inland tribute of pipe-staves, 

 to be sent across the sea. 



Most like, though, no stick of timber shall 

 go over the plantation line. Fire and fence 

 consume it ravenously ; besides, there is 

 building log walls, clap-board, roofs. It 

 was necessary timber that, a hundred years 

 ago, stayed the emigrant tide among these 

 hills, beside these streams ; left the wide 

 prairie country, for all its largess of tillable 

 land, to beckon in vain, and lie, seas of 

 grassy solitude, into a later time. 



Shelter, fire, and water this land assured. 

 Stroll on down to the waterside. A fair 

 spring bubbles there fresh and warm 

 warm, that is, by contrast with this keen 

 air. Each axe-man, half-spent and athirst, 

 drops prone beside it, and drinks, all harm- 

 less, his fill of sweet water. Now they are 



