34 THOREA U. 



to me, elect their rulers for their crookedness. But I 

 think that a straight stick makes the beat cane t and 

 an upright man the best&quot; ruler. Or why ~clibose a 

 man to&quot;3b&quot;^Ialn work~^who~ is distinguished for his 

 oddity ? However, I do not know but you will think 

 that they have committed this mistake who invited 

 me to speak to you to-day. 



In my capacity of surveyor I have often talked with 

 some of you, my employers, at your dinner-tables, 

 after having gone round and round and behind your 

 farming, and ascertained exactly what its limits were. 

 Moreover, taking a surveyor s and a naturalist s lib 

 erty, I have been in the habit of going across your 

 lots much oftener than is usual, as many of you, per 

 haps to your sorrow, are aware. Yet many of you, to 

 my relief, have seemed not to be aware of it ; and 

 when I came across you in some out-of-the-way nook 

 of your farms, have inquired, with an air of surprise, 

 if I were not lost, since you had never seen me in that 

 part of the town or county before ; when, if the truth 

 were known, and it had not been for betraying my 

 secret, I might with more propriety have inquired if 

 you were not lost, since I had never seen you there 

 before. I have several times shown the proprietor 

 the shortest way out of his wood-lot. 



Therefore, it would seem that I have some title to 

 speak to you to-day ; and considering what that title 

 is, and the occasion that has called us together, I need 

 offer no apology if I invite your attention, for the 

 few moments that are allotted me, to a purely scien 

 tific subject. 



At those dinner-tables referred to, I have often 

 been asked, as many of you have been, if I could tell 

 how it happened, that when a pine wood was cut 



