JOHN SANFORD S EVERGREEN FOREST. 37 



branches; Mr. Santord was In consternation. In a few moments 

 his labor would be destroyed. It was the work of an Instant. 

 He seized the costly overcoat of the dude, slapped it on the fire 

 and in a, few moments had it extinguished. Gatliering the re- 

 maining smouldering needles in a heap with his feet he threw 

 the burned coat over them and stamped and stamped until the 

 fire was out. 



The dude was mad. "It seems you are taking liberties with 

 my property." Mr. Sanford's eyes fairly blazed. "You heedless 

 wretch. By this time the flre would have been beyond control 

 and thousands of dollars ruined and my beautiful place would 

 have been a desolation. I did the only thing I could do and you 

 know it. What is your coat compared with the ruin you would 

 have wrought, turning this Elysium into a charred desolation." 

 The man quailed before these blazing eyes and went his way. 



"There," said the owner to himself, "is a, problem to be 

 solved. There must never be any grass left near miy road trees 

 and I must have wide firebreaks and driveways through this 

 grove." And the next day he began cutting a wide roadway and 

 plowing it up so that if a fire should break out in one part it 

 would not destroy the whole. Strange, men will be so care- 

 less. Tears ago ^a. man in. Albany threw a stump of a cigar in 

 some rubbish and half the business part of the city was in ashes. 

 In a great hotel in New York a man lately lit his cigar and toss- 

 ed his match away, not knowing or caring where it fell. It was 

 thrown into a lace curtain which caught fire. Soon a million- 

 dollar-building was in ashes and forty people lost their lives. 

 Innumerable prairie and forest fires have been heedlessly- set 

 and millions of property and hundreds of lives lost by such sheer 

 carelessness. 



Twenty years have passed. Some of the children have mar- 

 ried and gone away; some cling to home as the dearest spot on 

 earth. That farm has been an object lesson. The farmers, 

 finding what can be done, have also planted. Some of the busy 

 ones induced Mr. Sanford to plant a large nursery of evergreens. 

 "We cannot attend to it, but you can." So he turned much of 

 his farm into meadow and pasture and gave his time to helping 

 his neighbors. Though his charges were not high, he found it 

 much more profitable than wheat growing. .^ 



On his own place the protection was so perfect that he se- 

 cured an immense number of flowering shrubs and Perennials, 

 planting them here and there so that whichever way you went 

 you fell into perfect ambuscades of loveliness. In those shelter- 

 ed spots charming Columbines, Oriental Poppies, Delphiniums 

 and Phloxes grew. The place became a Mecca for the lovers of 

 the beautiful and people came and went carrying away the con- 

 tagion for home adornment. 



