WONDERS QE WOOD 
109 
ing daunted them, not cold, nor hunger, nor savages, not 
loneliness nor the stubbornness of untilled soil. Why, 
our greatest American was a backwoodsman! Who was 
he, and how did he look? His long arms could split 
rails with the best of them, yet he was wiser than men 
brought up in cities. 
Who was he? 
Abraham Lincoln! 
The day of the pioneer is past, but in our forests the 
axe still rings, the trees crash shivering to earth, and 
in our snug homes we think of the woodsmen who felled 
the trees for our fine furniture, our polished floors, our 
panelled walls and shingled roofs. 
