soft leaves, through which I took long breaths of the delicious 

 air. And sometimes a very little bird would light upon me, 

 and sing and talk to me, and tell me of the news of the forest, 

 and of the things that were happening around in the woods. 

 I was not yet tall enough to see a great deal myself, unless 

 close at hand, so I enjoyed these visits very much, and with 

 my leaves would carry on a low conversation with my pretty 

 little visitor, and ask him many questions. After a while the 

 winds blew chill, and a cold white substance fell on me out of 

 the sky, and my leaves shriveled and turned yellow. The 

 earth about me got numb and hard, and I became sleepy, 

 and dozed nearly all the time both day and night. And more 

 white, fleecy stuff came out of the air, but it was much thicker 

 and heavier than that which came first, and then my leaves 

 fell to the ground. Later I learned that this dense substance 

 which fell so plentifully was what the men creatures call snow. 

 One time this first winter there came so much of it that it 

 inclosed me closely, and covered me all up except a small part 

 of my top. And that came near causing me to have my first 

 mishap. A hungry rabtbit came one night, and, squatting 

 down by me, seized hold of my little body and began to gnaw 

 my tender bark. I was terribly frightened, and didn't know 

 what to do. But that very moment a monstrous owl, like a 

 dark, noiseless spirit from above, came down with a swift, 

 silent rush from a near-by tree, and seized my assailant with 

 its beak and claws and disappeared with it in a dense part 

 of the surrounding forest. I never forgot this narrow escape 

 from what might have crippled me for life, and the owls and 

 I were ever after that the best of friends. 



"Nearly all the time of my early youth was quiet and un- 

 eventful. The spot where I stood had been burnt over by 

 a fire set out by the red-skinned men people, which had de- 

 stroyed the other trees for some distance around. So, when 

 I first peered above the ground, I had plenty of sunlight and 

 ample room to extend my branches. My growth was rapid. 

 Other trees sprouted and grew about me, but I had got the 

 start of them — and kept it. But I was only a very little bush 

 when I saw for the first time some of the wild red-skinned men 



7 



