A Tale from the Skidway 37 



and loaded them and they were hauled down 

 into the valley, where they were hewed into 

 timber and builded into rude cabins. If any- 

 thing more was needed to make me vain, it 

 came when a pretty little pair of forest 

 warblers built the daintiest nest, that ever 

 you saw, in my boughs. 



" To think that they had chosen me instead 

 of some of the taller trees for their abiding 

 place, filled me with such pride that it is a 

 wonder that I did not crack my bark. All 

 through summer they stayed with me going 

 and coming from the nest, feeding and rear- 

 ing their fledglings and I was the happiest, 

 vainest little pine in all the great woods. 

 When the strong winds howled in the tree- 

 tops, bending them and sometimes even 

 breaking off branches, I stood stiff-backed 

 and resolute, and tried with all my sturdy 

 might not to rock the little downhair lined 

 nest among my green plumes lest I spill some 

 of the joy that it contained. 



" When at last the fledglings grew up and 

 the whiole family deserted me, I felt as lone- 



