A THOUSAND-YEAR PINE 



I had come a long distance for the 

 express purpose of deciphering Old 

 Pine's diary as the scroll of his life 

 should be laid open in the sawmill. 

 The abandonment of the shattered 

 form compelled the adoption of an- 

 other way of getting at his story. Re- 

 ceiving permission to do as I pleased 

 with his remains, I at once began to 

 cut and split both the trunk and the 

 limbs, and to transcribe their strange 

 records. Day after day I worked. I 

 dug up the roots and thoroughly dis- 

 sected them, and with the aid of a 

 magnifier I studied the trunk, the 

 roots, and the limbs. 



I carefully examined the base of his 

 stump, and in it I found ten hundred 

 and forty-seven rings of growth! He 

 had lived through a thousand and 



15 



