/ 



that resounded far and wide through the forest, I fell. As I 

 careened towards the ground, the strong fibers of the heart 

 of my wood that had not been reached by the saw tore apart 

 with a piercing shriek that sounded like the scream of some 

 large wild animal in mortal agony. I had not more than 

 fallen than the men, with the saw and their axes, ran to the 

 limb that was the home of the bees, and with their tools re- 

 moved a portion of the wood that covered the hive. The bees 

 were numb with cold and could make no resistance. The men 

 raked them up and threw them into their fire. Then they 

 proceeded to scoop up and put in a vessel the little hoard of 

 honey they found in the hollow branch. The quantity was 

 trifling, for the swarm of bees was a small one, and they had 

 not begun their work until rather late in the summer; so it 

 did not more than fill a little tin bucket. The. men were dis- 

 appointed and grumbled and swore about having worked over 

 half a day in the cold and got almost nothing. I now under- 

 stood the cause of my destruction. It had been done by those 

 men to gratify their covetous desire for that pitiful little 

 store of honey. They finally got into their wagon and drove 

 away, and I have never seen them since. 



"When I fell with crushing force on the hard, frozen earth' 

 many of my smaller branches were broken and scattered all 

 around me; but my great, giant trunk withstood the shock, 

 and, while now prostrate and helpless, is yet symmetrical and 

 solid. And I am full of sap (which is the blood and life of a 

 tree), so I am still in a state of existence and conscious of 

 what is going on around me. But this can not last long, for 

 the winter will soon be over, and the hot days of summer are 

 coming on. And when the fiery, burning rays of a summer's 

 sun fall upon me, they will dry up my life-blood, and then 

 I shall be nothing but a lifeless log in the forest; decay will 

 set in, and I shall moulder into dust. My end has come, and 

 there is nothing left for me to do but say — 



"Farewell!" 



'^u 



^?0 



