WHITE PINE GROVES 249 



cheek this morning made no such offing. Caught 

 in a back eddy it whirled round a sunny glade for 

 a moment, then in a sudden lull spun directly 

 downward to the grass. There again its shape 

 favored it. The first grass spear stopped its 

 spinning and it dived plummet-like out of sight, 

 the thin propeller becoming a tail that kept it 

 head downward while it slipped most cannily to 

 the very mould. There I found it, still in such 

 a position that every movement, every pressure, 

 would carry it down out of sight of all seed eat- 

 ing creatures where it might rest and ripen till 

 spring when it would be ready to germinate. 



Searching the pine grove and the scrubby 

 country that outlies it, I found all stages of pine 

 growth, from the gnarled patriarch four feet in 

 diameter at the butt to the germinating seedling. 

 The patriarch is nearly a hundred feet tall, and 

 though I know many pines of his height, I have 

 found none of quite his diameter, and I am very 

 sure none of his age, hereabouts. His age I can 

 but guess, yet I know that fifty years ago he was 

 as large as he is now. Indeed, he had more wood 

 in him, for his lower limbs that then were green 

 and flourishing and six to eight inches in di- 

 ameter have since decayed and fallen away. Re- 



