A Tale from the Skidway 29 



parent tree and venture into the world on its 

 own account. 



" Just at the particular moment that the 

 seed freed itself from the cone, there came a 

 slight puff of wind, that influenced the after- 

 life of the seed greatly, for it wafted it forty 

 or fifty feet into the forest, and deposited it 

 in a dark gloomy hollow. 



" This tiny seed was a very insignificant 

 looking thing, seemingly of no more worth 

 than a grain of sand. But here appearances 

 were most deceitful, for the seed held a secret 

 more precious than all else in the world, the 

 secret of life, which with all his inquisitive- 

 ness and his genius for finding out things, 

 man has never been able to discover. If that 

 seed could have told the world what it knew 

 that spring morning, the scientist would have 

 hugged himself with delight. 



" But the little seed was very modest and 

 unconscious of its importance. It lay there 

 in the mold where the playful spring zephyr 

 had dropped it, and dreamed while the 

 summer days went by. 



