A THOUSAND-YEAR PINE 



his stand between the Mesa and the 

 pine-plumed mountain, he had seen 

 the panorama of the seasons and many 

 a strange pageant; he had beheld what 

 scenes of animal and human strife, 

 what storms and convulsions of na- 

 ture! Many a wondrous secret he had 

 locked within his tree soul. Yet, al- 

 though he had not recorded what he 

 had seen, I knew that he had kept a 

 fairly accurate diary of his own per- 

 sonal experience. This I knew the saw 

 would reveal, and this I had deter- 

 mined to see. 



Nature matures a million conifer 

 seeds for each one she chooses for 

 growth, so we can only speculate as to 

 the selection of the seed from which 

 sprung this storied pine. It may be 

 that the cone in which it matured was 

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