THE FOREST 209 



ing and shading some of my rarer trees and that 

 they would eventually kill them. Hence the 

 need of the axe, although it required a steeling 

 of the heart to destroy what I had nurtured from 

 their infancy. I could still keep a thicket for 

 birds even with liberal cutting and my thicket 

 would contain a greater variety of trees. 



The wielding of the axe as an exercise has 

 many advantages. Personally I prefer it to the 

 wielding of a golf club. It is at its best in mid- 

 winter when golf is often impossible. It re- 

 quires much skill and quickness of eye. My 

 first stumps looked like beaver stumps. The 

 felling of the tree in the desired direction, the 

 loping off of the limbs, the cutting up of the large 

 part of the trunk into fireplace wood, and of the 

 small part into stove wood, the pushing of the 

 load in a wheelbarrow up to the house or the 

 dragging it on a sled on the snow, the gathering 

 and burning of the brush — all of these in the 

 cold sparkling days of autumn and winter are 

 joys that make life worth living and keep a man 

 in good physical condition. There is no better 

 exercise. 



