CHAPTER X 



A WIND-STOKM IN THE FOKESTS 



THE mountain winds, like the dew and rain, 

 sunshine and snow, are measured and bestowed 

 with love on the forests to develop their strength 

 and beauty. However restricted the scope of other 

 forest influences, that of the winds is universal. 

 The snow bends and trims the upper forests every 

 winter, the lightning strikes a single tree here and 

 there, while avalanches mow down thousands at a 

 swoop as a gardener trims out a bed of flowers. But 

 the winds go to every tree, fingering every leaf 

 and branch and furrowed bole ; not one is forgotten; 

 the Mountain Pine towering with outstretched arms 

 on the rugged buttresses of the icy peaks, the lowliest 

 and most retiring tenant of the dells ; they seek and 

 find them all, caressing them tenderly, bending them 

 in lusty exercise, stimulating their growth, plucking 

 off a leaf or limb as required, or removing an entire 

 tree or grove, now whispering and cooing through 

 the branches like a sleepy child, now roaring like 

 the ocean; the winds blessing the forests, the 

 forests the winds, with ineffable beauty and har 

 mony as the sure result. 



After one has seen pines six feet in diameter 

 bending like grasses before a mountain gale, and 



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