, the contrast between the puny instrument and
the gigantic result to be accomplished approaches the ridiculous. But as
"the eagle towering in his pride of place was, by a mousing owl, hawked
at and killed," so the leaf-crowned monarch of the wood has no small
reason to quiver at the sight of a long-armed Yankee approaching his
deep-rooted trunk with an awkward axe. One blow seems to accomplish
nothing: not even a chip falls. But with another stroke comes a broad
slice of the bark, leaving an ominous, gaping wound. Another pair of
blows extends the gash, and when twenty such have fallen, behold a
girdled tree. This would suffice to kill, and a melancholy death it is;
but to fell is quite another thing.... Two deep incisions are made,
yet the towering crown sits firm as ever. And now the destroyer
pauses,--fetches breath,--wipes his beaded brow, takes a wary view
of the bearings of the tree,--and then with a slow and watchful care
recommences his work. The strokes fall doubtingly, and many a cautious
glance is cast upward, for the whole immense mass now trembles, as if
instinct with life, and conscious of approaching ruin. Another blow! it
waves,--a groaning sound is heard--... yet another stroke is necessary.
It is given with desperate force, and the tall peak leaves its place
with an easy sailing motion accelerated every instant, till it crashes
prone on the earth, sending far and wide its scattered branches, and
letting in the sunlight upon the cool, damp, mossy earth, for the first
time perhaps in half a century.

* * * * *

From "Western Clearings."

=_209._= THE BEE TREE.

One of the greatest temptations to our friend Silas, and to most of his
class, is a bee hunt. Neither deer, nor 'coons, nor prairie hens, nor
even bears, prove half as powerful enemies to anything like regular
business, as do these little thrifty vagrants of the forest. The
slightest hint of a bee tree will entice Silas Ashburn and his sons from
the most profitable job of the season, even though the defection is sure
to result in entire loss of the offered advantage; and if the hunt prove
successful, the luscious spoil is generally too tempting to allow of
any care for the future, so long as the "sweet'nin" can be persuaded to
last. "It costs nothing," will poor Mrs. Ashburn observe; "let 'em enjoy
it. It isn't often we have such good luck."

* * * * *

=_Margaret Fuller Ossol