86 THE HUMAN SIDE OF TREES 



able log. Some of us are naturalists, some of us are 

 woodsmen, some of us are merely keen observers. 

 By our own united efforts we hack out the big 

 tree's closest secrets and translate the sensations 

 and emotions of over a thousand years into actual 

 words. What tragedies are revealed! Perhaps 

 an early love affair caused the tree to vainly reach 

 out its youthful arms toward some heartless flirt, 

 and this great secret is only revealed after many 

 years. 



"The hand of man has indeed laid me low, but 

 I am proud that it took all his skill and ingenuity 

 to succeed where centuries of storm and winter- 

 ragings failed!" boasts the tree. 



"You all have agreed that I am a white pine. 

 To save you the measuring, I might tell you that 

 I am 150 feet tall, 8 feet in diameter at the base 

 and weigh an unbelievable number of tons. I am 

 a little time-worn but proud of my scars as a true 

 soldier should be. I have had the misfortune to 

 be struck by lightning more times than I can re- 

 member, and I have suffered all the other hardships 

 common to the tree kingdom. Yet for all this I 

 have uncomplainingly held my own with the world, 

 and it took a man-made axe to bring me down. I 

 am proud that calamity overtook me standing!" 



A subdued titter runs round the circle at this 



