THE FOREST 171 



better growth. The chestnut is handicapped by 

 the blight yet two or three still live. 



When the forest was in its fourteenth year 

 and some of the trees had reached the respectable 

 height of twenty feet, I planned a shelter in its 

 precincts. With the help of the light-keeper, 

 a lean-to was built in a clump of white pines in 

 the heart of the forest. The pines were some 

 of those Mr. William Brewster had sent me from 

 his farm in Concord, dug not far from his log 

 cabin on the Concord River. Theirs was a pleas- 

 ant association. They had reached a height of 

 twelve or fifteen feet and in one of them a crow 

 had built her nest. We dug four holes through 

 the brown carpet of needles and the black loam 

 to white glacial clay, and planted four stout 

 cedar posts. A slanting roof above of spruce 

 boards covered with shingles and a flat floor 

 eight feet square beneath completed the structure, 

 with the exception of wire netting on three sides 

 and cotton netting curtains in front. The crow's 

 nest, which had been deserted, made a convenient 

 shelf for our tools during the building. Inside 

 the lean-to there was room for two cot beds, and 



