CHAPTER XVIIl 



AI.ONE UP MT. KATAHDIN 



A CLEAR frosty morning when all vegetation 

 was covered with a silvery sparkling jacket. The 

 chicadees hunted busily among the frosted leaves 

 for their early breakfast, and the tapping of the 

 woodpeckers sounded loudly in the bright crisp 

 air ; few other birds there were, and all nature 

 seemed hushed. In the far distance Mt. Katahdin 

 stood out sharp and well defined against the early 

 morning sky, keeping her constant guard over the 

 lower lands and the hills, so much smaller and less 

 majestic than herself. 



Morcross was astir betimes this Sunday morning, 

 for a gang of lumbermen were about to leave 

 by the little steamer, that would take them to 

 the head of Lake Pummadumcook ; thence they 

 would start for their winter quarters in the more 

 remote forests, there to continue the work of 

 felling the majestic forest trees. The woodman's 

 axe spares no timber that can be turned to money, 

 and all trees that are of sufficient size must fall. 

 Go where you will, the huge stumps, those silent 

 monuments of man's devastating hand, stand up, 

 decayed and fungus-covered, to show where once 

 the tree had reared its head of murmuring pine 

 needles or wind-blown leaves. 



It was nearly six o'clock ; the steamer, towing its 

 w.L.c. s 



