stumps and Snake-fences 103 



Squirrels and chipmunks had a racetrack up and down 



its devious length, 

 And while it was not handsome, it sure was a thing of 



strength ; 

 Wild bees with their honeyed treasure hived about its 



sheltering base, 

 To it rabbits fled for safety when the dog was in full 



chase, 

 And the ''yellow jacket" often built its grey paper 



residence 

 In the nooks and hidden comers of the old rail-fence. 



But now the old rail-fence curves around no 

 more about the tidy blossoming farms by the 

 banks of the Thames or classic Avon or other 

 Old Ontario stream. It served its time and its 

 time was the wooden age in this fair Dominion. 

 I've been told that there were farms in Western 

 Ontario fenced with walnut rails and I have seen 

 some that were fenced with fine oak, maple, hick- 

 ory, rock elm and other valuable timber. It has 

 been charged, too, that our pioneers were wood 

 butchers — that they had absolutely no respect or 

 reverence for a tree, however magnificently pro- 

 portioned. Ah, well, it was different in pioneer 

 days and those early settlers had not much time 

 to be sentimental — the bigger their clearings the 

 more their young families had of the necessaries 

 of life. 



I have in mind one tree — a magnificent elm — 

 that was spared by the woodman. It stands fairly 

 in the centre of a main travelled public highway 



