OAK-TREE. 103 



food may be plentiful at the time of hatching, or else, not 

 heeding the rain and pinching wind of the early season, 

 she wishes to bring up her young in habits of hardihood 

 and recklessness of cold. The saw was applied to the 

 oak, and wedges were inserted into the opening; the 

 forest echoed to the heavy blows of the woodman's 

 hatchet, and the tree nodded to its fall, but still the dam 

 sat on. At length a crashing sound was heard, and down 

 it came, upheaving the earth beneath, and burying its 

 lofty head in the deep soil. The poor bird was flung 

 from her nest. She might have escaped at the first, for 

 no one wished to injure her, and even the rough workmen 

 pitied her, as they saw the anxious look which she cast 

 at them from time to time ; but she would not move even 

 when the tree began to topple amid the din of their heavy 

 blows. Down, then, it came, with a crash that made the 

 forest ring, and the poor bird, being struck by the twigs, 

 was brought to the ground. 



