A Tale from the Skidway 35 



the seasons. But finally the white man came. 

 He awoke the forest with new and terrible 

 lightning, before which the deer and the 

 panther were powerless, and the red man 

 melted away like the snowbanks in early 

 spring. But worst of all, this white man 

 brought with him an implement, keen and 

 bright, which he calls an axe. Ever since the 

 day of his coming the echoes of the axe have 

 resounded through the forest, and one by one 

 my kind have been laid low. As you know, 

 I was the last of the first growth pines on 

 the mountain side. 



" As I have already said, when I was about 

 forty years old, this white man came with 

 his axe. The first time I saw him, he was 

 blazing a wood road through the forest. 



" He was picking out a path that should 

 be smooth in winter, and as straight as he 

 could make it, without too much work. He 

 lopped down a sapling here, and a clump of 

 bushes there, and every few feet, he stopped 

 and blazed a tree. This blazed tree would 

 show him the road when the snow was piled 



