ir own home these trees had become used to a
dry climate like that of our prairies.

Steep canons and cliffs of rock once kept people, living on the opposite
sides of mountain ranges, from becoming acquainted with one another. Our
ancestors were afraid to venture out on the boundless oceans with their
small, frail boats. Because of this the continent that we live on long
remained unknown. Those who first found it, the ancestors of the present
Indians, came here by accident. Storms probably blew their boats across
the North Pacific Ocean, and thus they found a new home. Now railroads
enable us to cross the deserts in perfect comfort. Tunnels have been
made through the mountains, so that we can go easily from one valley to
another. Boats of giant size carry us safely and quickly across the
stormy oceans. Nature did not intend us to fly through the air or swim
beneath the water, but we are learning so much about her laws that we
shall soon be almost as much at home in the air and the sea as the birds
and fish are.

CHAPTER FIVE

THE LAND OF THE POOR PEOPLE

My squandered forests, hacked and hewed,
Are gone; my rivers fail;
My stricken hillsides, stark and nude,
Stand shivering in the gale.
Down to the sea my teeming soil
In yellow torrents goes;
The guerdon of the farmer's toil
With each year lesser grows.

ROBERT M. REESE, _The Spendthrift_; quoted in _American Forestry_,
XIV. 269

This is the story of a land of plenty that became almost a desert. Long
ago there dwelt in this land a people wise in all the things that
concerned their home. Through many hard years of toil and struggle they
had learned to take the very best care of what Nature had given them.
Although Nature seemed to them to be wasteful, she punished waste in her
children. As long as they obeyed, they had comfortable homes, fertile
fields, and sleek herds.

The country of which we are speaking was very beautiful. There were
lofty mountains and broad, fertile valleys. Many streams, fed by clear,
cool springs, flowed through the land. There were also green meadows and
deep, dark forests.

The forests contained many wild animals, for in the forests the animals
found both food and protection. Birds of every sort abounded, and their
music filled the air. Trees overhung the streams, shading them from the
hot sun, so that they did not dry up in the summer. The springs never
failed, for the carpet of leaves and decaying