TAKING REINS IN HAND 



a lumpish tree," and he thwacks into the rind 

 a foot or two from the ground, so as to leave 

 a "nate" Irish stump. Half through the bole, 

 he begins to doubt if it be indeed a chestnut or 

 a poplar ; and casting his eye aloft to measure 

 it anew, an ancient woodpecker drops some- 

 thing smarting in his eye; and his howl starts 

 the ruminating team into a confused entangle- 

 ment among the young wood. Having eased 

 his pain, and extricated his cattle, he pushes 

 on with his axe, and presently, with a light 

 crash of pliant boughs, his timber is lodged in 

 the top of an adjoining tree. He tugs, and 

 strains, and swears, and splits the helve of 

 his axe in adapting it for a lever, and presently, 

 near to noon, comes back for three or four 

 hands to give him a boost with the tree. You 

 return — to find the team strayed through a 

 gate left open, into a thriving cornfield, and 

 one of your pet tulip trees lodged in a lithe 

 young hickory. 



"Och! and it 's a toolip — it is! and I was 

 thinkin' 't was niver a chistnut; begorra, it 's 

 lucky thin, it did n't come down intirely." 



These and other such, replace the New Eng- 

 lander born, who long ago was paid off, 

 wrapped his savings in a dingy piece of sheep- 

 skin, scratched his head reflectingly, and dis- 



85 



