46 Trails to Woods and Waters 



filled with clouds of dust and sticks. As it 

 drew nearer, trees and all kinds of debris 

 were seen rolling and tumbling, grinding and 

 breaking. 



" When the cloud storm dipped down to 

 the forest, great trees bent and broke or were 

 blown over and uprooted. Giants that had 

 withstood the tempests of centuries, went over 

 like ninepins, and for the first time in my 

 life I was afraid. 



" At first when it struck me, I stood up 

 proudly. I had never before bowed my head, 

 and why should I now? But it only took a 

 very few seconds for me to see the folly of 

 such a course. So I bent and swayed, 

 thrashed and writhed, and so far as I could, 

 obeyed the cyclone. It stripped me of many 

 of my branches and bent me down until my 

 back was ready to break. Then with a roar 

 like continuous thunder, and a constant play 

 of lightning, with a torrent of hail and rain, 

 and a blinding cloud of dust and debris of 

 every kind, the cyclone sucked half of my 

 blue green plumes of which I was so proud 



