those Cedars — all that is left of that cele- 

 brated forest. Two of these trees are 

 so old that it is claimed that they were 

 alive and young, when the temple at 

 Jerusalem was built. The wandering- 

 Arabs call them saints, and look upon 

 them with reverence, claiming that they 

 know more than man. The resin of these 

 trees is fragrant, but so bitter that no 

 insects trouble them." 



'That is very interesting, but the 

 legends ?" 



"O, I had quite forgotten. Well, many 

 years ago, in an Indian village, there 

 lived ten Indian boys who were great 

 friends. They would meet every even- 

 ing at dusk and dance about one of their 

 members who was a very sweet singer. 

 One evening, they wanted to have a feast, 

 but their parents would not let them as 

 they thought it was very foolish ; so the 

 boys met as usual and danced about their 

 singer. He sang more sweetly than ever 

 that evening, and they danced faster and 

 faster, whirling around in wild delight. 

 He rose from the ground, his sweet voice 

 floating out upon the evening air, and 

 they followed, dancing and circling 

 about him. Their mothers came out and 

 called angrily to them to come back and 

 they might have what they wanted. But 

 the Indian boys rose higher and higher, 

 and still the singer sang sweeter and 

 sweeter until, looking back, he fell to 

 earth, and became a pine tree. The 

 trunk is the singer, and the branches are 

 the dancing boys. That is why we sing 

 so sweetly, we are always telling O'f the 

 Indian boys who danced away into the 

 clouds." His voice had sunken to a 

 faint murmur and seemed dying away 

 in the distance. 



As she stroked one of his cones which 

 he had thrown into her lap, the maiden 

 said, — "That was a lovely legend, dear 

 old friend. Will you tell another?" 



Then she thought she heard him say, 

 ''Do you see that tuft on my head like a 

 feather ?" 



She had not, but was ashamed to tell 

 him so. 



"There is one there. An Indian once 

 went to the Great Spirit tO' ask a favor. 

 He had a desire to be very tall, taller 

 than any other Indian in the land. This 

 displeased the Great Spirit who thought 



he should ask for something better — 

 something that would do his people good. 

 So the Great Spirit, in his anger, changed 

 the Indian into a pine tree, and you may 

 see his tuft of feathers on my head. 



'T had an ancestor, a stalwart pine 

 which has looked upon this country when 

 the red man ruled here alone, when he 

 roamed through these vast forests as 

 King of this New World. This ancestor 

 of mine was centuries old when your 

 great Columbus sailed over the unknown 

 seas to discover this land." He paused 

 as though he were thinking O'f that far 

 off past, and Mabel was beginning to 

 fear that his story was ended for that 

 day. She sat quietly, and listening in- 

 tently, she heard the wind toss his 

 branches and his voice sounded like the 

 far-off waves of the ocean as he con- 

 tinued : 



"Another member of our family, the 

 famous Cypress of Montezuma, grew in 

 the garden of Chehultepec. It was one 

 hundred and twenty-seven feet high, and 

 about fifteen feet in diameter. Think of 

 that when you try to put your arms 

 around my trunk! It was a noted tree, 

 four centuries ago, and is believed to be 

 seven hundred years old. 



. "But that tree is a mere babe com- 

 pared with a giant Sequoia which man 

 has recently discovered. This patriarch 

 among trees has a diameter of about 

 thirty-five feet and reaches the height of 

 four hundred and twenty feet. When 

 these large trees were first discovered 

 in 1852, the world rang with the wonder- 

 ful news of these immense trees in the 

 Sierras, and yet the largest one of those 

 was only thirty feet in diameter and three 

 hundred and two feet tall. It was said 

 then. 'Soi great is their height that it seems 

 as if a man was standing on the topmost 

 bough, his outstretched hand might pluck 

 the stars from their places.' The age of 

 that tree was estimated to be two thou- 

 sand years, while this patriarch is thought 

 to be eight thousand years old. Can 

 your mind grasp that? That monarch of 

 the forest was venerable with age when 

 all that you think of as ancient was. in 

 its infancy. Before Rome was, before 

 Greece was, these giants were kings 

 among trees. They struck their mighty 

 roots into the ground and reared their 



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