e beautiful wood. But in pine, it is not
beauty, but facility of working, which is the great object. So they
always want to get pine as smooth and straight-grained as possible. So
that one of these trees that grow detached, in the fields, would not be
of much value for lumber. It has so many branches, that the boards made
from it would be full of knots."

"That is the reason, I suppose," said Marco, "why they don't cut them
down, and make them into boards."

"Perhaps it is," replied Forester.

"Has pine any other very good qualities?" asked Marco.

"I believe it is quite a durable wood," said Forester. "At any rate, the
stumps last a very long time in the ground. I have heard it said that
there are some stumps in the state of Maine with the old mark of G. R.
upon them."

"What does G. R. mean?" asked Marco.

"_Georgius Rex_," replied Forester,--"that is, George, the king. If
there are any such, the mark on them means that they belonged to the
king of England, before this country was separated from England. In
those days, the king's workmen went into the forests to select and mark
the trees which were to be cut down for the king's use, and these marks
were left upon the stumps."

"And how long ago was that?" asked Marco.

"O, it must have been sixty or seventy years ago. But I can hardly
believe that the stumps would last as long as that."

"I mean to ask some of the men, when I get up in the woods, how long
the stumps do last," said Marco.

"They last very long, I know," said Forester. "The people, after getting
tired of waiting to have them rot out, tear them up with machines, and
make fences of them."

"I don't see how they can make fences of stumps," said Marco.

"They put them in a row, with the roots in the air," replied Forester.
"They make a funny-looking fence."

Just at this time Marco perceived a large town coming into view before
them, which, Forester told him, was Bath. There were several ships
building along the shore of the river.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER VII.

THE BEAR IN THE MILL.

Marco and Forester found a small steamboat at Bath, going up the river,
and they took passage in it to Hallowell. At Hallowell, they took the
stage, and travelled along the banks of the river, sometimes on one side
and sometimes on the other. They crossed the river by means of bridges,
which were erected in nearly all the principal towns. They passed a
number of waterfalls, where saw-mills had be