IN THE BEGINNING 



worth the trouble, time, and expense to save 

 these grand old trees, which bore traces in every 

 limb of their struggle for existence. Twisted, 

 turned, and crooked, it would be impossible for 

 man to rear them thus if he would. Once I saw 

 John Burroughs standing on the hillside gazing 

 with evident delight upon these gnarled old 

 trunks. He mused awhile, and then his face lit 

 up with a smile, and he nodded his good, gray 

 head, and said quietly, " Yes, they 're classic ! 

 That's it! Classic!" 



The first trail from the wharf to the house I 

 spotted on the trees myself, and the men followed 

 with their axes and cleared out the path indicated. 

 Then the stumps were taken out, and plough and 

 harrow levelled off the surface. This was only 

 provisional road-making, of course. We needed 

 earth in every direction to fill hollows, and to 

 cover the roots of trees, and the only place we 

 could get it was from our road-bed. We carted 

 away the good soil and filled the holes we had made 

 with rocks and stones, taken from the spaces we 

 had gone over with pick and shovel, using enough 

 of the underlying gravel to cover these rocks and 

 make a smooth surface for our road. This gravel 

 was what is known as hard pan, — a mixture of 



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