BEFORE WE ENTER THE FOREST 



Come, let us enter the Forest, leaving the 

 world behind. Here the trees will tell us of 

 themselves and their work — ^what they do for 

 you and for me. The Forest speaks to all who 

 will listen, though every one translates its mes- 

 sage in a different way. Four men once en- 

 tered the forest: a scientist, a pastor, a 

 teacher, and a poet. The scientist brought 

 away a treatise ; the pastor, a text ; the teacher, 

 a lesson; and the poet, a song. I, too, found 

 my way into the Forest ; and all that I heard 

 there I put into words, which took the form of 

 a story. 



One day I showed my story to a forester, 

 who loves the wildwoods of our land ; and he 

 paused in his busy work to read what the trees 

 had told to me. As these stories are not really 

 mine, but only my interpretation of what the 



