It seemed like an endless number to him 

 and he amused his uncle by asking if 

 this Lapp didn't own about all the deer 

 there were in Lapland. 



Mr. Polaski pointed out the owner's 

 brand by which each deer was branded 

 and explained to Alex that by that mark 

 a deer that had strayed away from the 

 herd could be known and returned to 

 its owner. 



The rest of the day was spent by Mr. 

 Polaski in sorting and bargaining for 

 reindeer pelts, and Alex was told to 

 amuse himself. Left to his own devices, 

 the boy's curiosity kept him busy until 

 everything worth seeing had been ex 

 amined. 



"Well, how would you like to live 

 here, young man?" 



"Russia is good enough for me Uncle. 

 The reindeer driving is all that I care 

 about. Everything is so queer! The 

 people look so odd and are bundled up 

 so they don't seem like folks, and the 

 huts don't look a bit like our houses. 

 I'm sure I shouldn't like to live here all 

 the time." 



The next morning Alex was put in 

 charge of one of the Lapps to be taken 

 back to the settlement, while Mr. Po 

 laski resumed his journey. The return 

 drive was not quite so enjoyable to Alex 

 for he and the Lapp could understand 



each other only by signs. The Lapp's 

 animal was a very swift one and Alex's 

 deer tried to keep up with it, so there 

 was not so much lurching of the sledge 

 and he had but two upsettings. 



How they sped over the snow! Alex 

 could hardly believe his sight when the 

 settlement came in view. When dinner 

 was over, the droshky stood ready at 

 the inn door and Alex invited the Lapp 

 to ride with him. The carriage and the 

 three horses were a great attraction to 

 the Lapp and no doubt he would have 

 liked very much to have accepted the 

 invitation, but he pointed in the direction 

 they had come and gave Alex to under 

 stand that he was to start back for home 

 at once. 



The driver of the droshky was given 

 all the details of the trip and was in 

 formed that reindeer went far ahead of 

 horses. When Alex reached home, he 

 was the envy and admiration of his com 

 rades. To their minds, a boy that had 

 been to Lapland, ridden in a sledge after 

 a reindeer, and eaten and slept in : a Lap 

 land hut, had an experience that' was 

 worth boasting about Always after' 

 that, his uncle's journeys to Lapland 

 had a much deeper meaning for Alex, 

 and Mr. Polaski was greatly pleased 

 that the boy had gained so much from 

 the trip. MARTHA R. FITCH. 



FOREST VANDALISM 



Daily the axe is doing its quota in 

 leveling our forests; removing the fa 

 miliar giant growths throughout our 

 farm-lands, about our homesteads. 



Vast tracts of timber-lands are annu 

 ally devastated, no vestige of past con 

 ditions remaining; even the smaller 

 growths being utilized as a commodity 

 of commerce, or annihilated throughout 

 the clearing as refuse to meet the fire 

 brand. 



Over such arias new attitudes toward 

 the general preservation of nature's 

 equipoise throughout the states prevail 

 and tend by just so much to disarrange 

 a harmony which has proved in the past 



beneficent to man and essential to the 

 best results of vegetable life. 



The breath of the forest is no imag 

 inary element of interest, but a factor 

 among nature's forces as truly as are 

 the winds upon which it is freighted. 



The living tree inhales and exhales 

 through its leaves; it takes from the air 

 and from the soil elements which, with 

 in its marvelous laboratory not only 

 build up its own structure but enable 

 it to give back to the earth and air its 

 breath and the principles of vegetable 

 life in its fallen leaf. 



The higher the .development of tree 

 formation the more pregnant its influ- 



