THE CONIFEROUS FORESTS 



that have grown up in undisturbed 

 simplicity. After the first feeling of 

 strangeness wears off, as it soon will, 

 they grow companionable and interest- 

 ing. There is a virtue in the sturdy 

 forms that have grown to maturity 

 without aid or interference by man. 

 We would not change them in that 

 place for the most beautiful trees in a 

 park. Even the woodsman, whose 

 days are spent here in the hardest toil, 

 feels a longing for the forest, his home, 

 when his short respite in the summer 

 is over. So we, too, though we may 

 long for civilization after a few months 

 in the forest, will yet feel the desire to 

 return to it after once thoroughly mak- 

 ing its acquaintance. 



The attitude of the woodsman to- 

 ward the forest is much like the af- 

 137 



