My First Summer 



on bare rock, thrusting its roots into a 

 weathered joint less than an inch wide, 

 and bulging out to form a base to bear its 

 weight. The storm came from the north 

 while it was young and broke it down nearly 

 to the ground, as is shown by the old, dead, 

 weather-beaten top leaning out from the 

 living trunk built up from a new shoot below 

 the break. The annual rings of the trunk 

 that have overgrown the dead sapling tell 

 the year of the storm. Wonderful that a 

 side branch forming a portion of one of the 

 level collars that encircle the trunk of this 

 species (Abies magnified) should bend up- 

 ward, grow erect, and take the place of the 

 lost axis to form a new tree. 



Many others, pines as well as firs, bear 

 testimony to the crushing severity of this 

 particular storm. Trees, some of them fifty 

 to seventy-five feet high, were bent to the 

 ground and buried like grass, whole groves 

 vanishing as if the forest had been cleared 

 away, leaving not a branch or needle visible 



[ 192 ] 



