PAYING FOR PINE TREES 



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rf^HE letter said all 

 there was to say. 

 It covered the case 

 fully, and no one 

 ' could mistake what 

 it meant. It was 

 : cold in tone and 

 very much to the 

 point, running about as follows: 

 "Dear Sir: 



"Your two sons, with Johnny Roe and 

 Dick Doe, have destroyed 47 pine trees 

 on my grounds. These trees had been 

 in place for three years, and I shall ex- 

 pect you and the parents of the other 

 boys to pay the cost of replanting others 

 of the same age and size. There is no 

 doubt of the fact that these boys did the 

 damage, for they were caught in the act. 

 If you have any doubt as to the amount 

 of the damage done, you may come and 

 see for yourself. I shall replace the trees 

 in the spring and shall send the bill to 

 you." 



The name signed to the letter was that 

 of one of the richest men in all our neigh- 

 borhood, who has a great big house 

 and grounds, with everything planned 

 and laid out by the man who won the 

 prize for the best plan for the new capi- 

 tal of Australia. 



There was nothing for me to do but 

 to write back to him and tell him that I 

 would make good the damage done by 

 my two boys. I knew the plantation, and 

 I knew the man. It would do no good to 

 tell him that the pine thicket was too 

 closely planted, and that the trees would 

 crowd each other out in a year or so; 

 then he would have to cut them out him- 

 self if he did not want them to kill one 

 another off. Besides, he had the right 

 to require any settlement that seemed 

 good to him, and I had no right to ques- 

 tion it. 



rPHE letter was the first news that I 

 *- had of the injury to the trees. When 

 I asked the boys about it they told a 

 straight tale. Toto had suggested the 

 idea of making an Indian hut; the pine 

 branches were there in a thick growth. 

 In almost less time than it takes to tell 

 about it, the frame-work of the hut was 

 up and was snugly covered with woven 

 pine boughs. It was a good job. I saw 

 it at the same time that I saw the trees 

 with the center shoots broken off and 

 some of the side branches stripped. As 

 the letter said, there was no doubt as to 

 the damage. 



YV7HAT surprised me most was that 

 " the boys had done such a trick. I 

 had thought that they had been taught 

 not to hurt other folks' things, and that, 

 most of all, they had learned never to cut 

 or mar a tree. But with all the boy-scout 

 wood-craft that is printed in books; and 

 all the Indian trail blazes that are given 

 for boys to make, I am surprised that no 

 more harm is done. I think that my 

 boys have learned a lesson from this; I 

 hope they have, anyhow. Their Christ- 

 mas was cut down; they have to stay 

 within bounds; they must earn at least 

 a part of the money that the trees will 

 cost. 



It may be true that they did not know 

 how much harm they were doing. They 

 said they did not know that the trees 

 were planted, and thought that they 

 "just grew." When I went back in my 

 mind to the same sort of thing that 

 grown men have been doing with the 

 forests of the country, slashing and 

 burning with no thought of the time it 

 took the trees to grow, and of the cost 

 that it would take to replace them I 

 confess that I could not be as harsh as 

 I might have been. 



'W 



