TOWNS OF PUGET SOUND 



out of breath, and when one tries to draw them 

 out on some subject away from logs, all the 

 fresh, leafy, outreaching branches of the mind 

 seem to have been withered and killed with 

 fatigue, leaving their lives little more than 

 dry Imnber. Many a tree have these old axe- 

 men felled, but, round-shouldered and stooping, 

 they too are beginning to lean over. Many 

 of their companions are already beneath the 

 moss, and among those that we see at work 

 some are now dead at the top (bald), leafless, 

 so to speak, and tottering to their fall. 



A very different man, seen now and then 

 at long intervals but usually invisible, is the 

 free roamer of the wilderness — himter, pros- 

 pector, explorer, seeking he knows not what, 

 lithe and sinewy, he walks erect, making his 

 way with the skill of wild animals, all his senses 

 in action, watchful and alert, looking keenly 

 at everything in sight, his imagination well 

 nourished in the wealth of the wilderness, 

 coming into contact with free nature in a 

 thousand forms, drinking at the fountains of 

 things, responsive to wild influences, as trees 

 to the winds. Well he knows the wild animals 

 his neighbors, what fishes are in the streams, 

 what birds in the forests, and where food may 

 be found. Hungry at times and weary, he has 

 corresponding eajoyment in eating and rest" 



249 



