but after being cut into logs we were loaded on large 

 sleighs. There were ten of these sleighs all joined 

 together in a train, and at the head there was not a 

 tug-boat but there was a Puffing Billy of a steam 

 engine, a snow locomotive with runners in front and 

 large wheels with spikes in them behind. When 

 we were all in place the driver started the engine and 

 away we went just like a railway train over the hard 

 snow road. It took us two days to reach the saw- 

 mill and on the way we passed other steam logging 

 trains going back to the hills with sleighs altogether 

 empty or else partly filled with supplies for the 

 lumbermen. 



"This went on until spring, more and more logs 

 being added to the piles as the days grew longer. 

 When spring came we found we were all on the ice of a 

 big pond, and soon we were floating in the water and 

 being pushed along by men with pike-poles to the 

 mill. We were cut up like other logs by the big 

 shining saws, and after being smoothed down in 

 the planing-mill I was brought here and built into 

 this school." 



"Didn't the Red Demon get you?" asked the 

 Stove with a sneer. 



"No, I escaped," said the White Spruce, "but he 

 killed many thousands of my brothers. I saw their 

 graves as we were going to the saw-mill." 



"So you do consent to be made into boards, besides 

 propping up the roofs of iron-mines and coal-mines?" 

 asked the Stove who was not yet out of his ill-humor 

 for being corrected on this point. 



"Yes and do not forget me," piped up a* 

 School Reading Book, which was lying on a desk 

 near the Stove. "I am made from Spruce also. 



