The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1906-05-19

been at one time covered with nne
growth of pine. Lumbermen, now
ever. had cut it off forty years before
my time, all except one tree, a grand
old pine, which stood near the deel
ravine Of Stoss Pond Brook,
At first view it might have been
thought sentiment which had LED the
woodsmen to spare this one last pine
Of all the thousands so ruthiessi!
slaughtered for lumber; but the rea'
reason was much more prosalc- ne
pine stood within ten feet OF tue
brink of the ravine, and leaned SO
heavily over it that the aXmea had
despaired Of making it fall the other
way.
If it fell across the ravine great DIT
fculty would have attended getting
the heavy logs out: moreover the
trunk would be likely, in falling, to
be so broken and shattered as to be
unfit for boards.
They therefore let it stand, and
went their way to other lots.
The gorge Of the brook was perhaps
forty feet deep. steep-sided and rocky
the brook being roaring torrent IN
spring-time, but later in the season
a fine stream Of trout. So Stoss Pond
pine, as we called it, stood unmolest-
ed, although valuable. Passing lum-
bermen often looked 1t over, but gave
1t up as a bad bargain. Nature had
protected it quite effectively. The
tree was probably two centuries old.
a white pine more than three feet in
diameter, tall and without limb for
forty or fifty feet In our time 1t in
creased in size but slowly. If at all.
One day late in October, 1872, my
cousin Addison and had gone up to
Stoss Pond to gather a baskettul OF
high-bush cranberries, from a bog
there for household jelly, and to look
after some young cattle that had been
pastured during the summer in the
openings about the pond.
AS we were looking for the young
stock, now grown quite wild and shy
We went past the solitary old pine,
and were led to stop and contemplate
It with a speculative eye. For at this
time Addison and had begun to at
tend Waynor Academy and cherished
hopes Of fitting for college-then
deemed somewhat bold design.
The old squire had intimated to US
pretty plainly that If We went to col
lege at all we should have to pay our
own way there. A common school
education was all that he felt able to
give us. Now nothing so sharpens a
boys wits as an awakening ambition
to obtain an education; nothing puts
him more keenly on the lookout to
make dollar. That afternoon at the
pond our talk turned to plans for earn
ing money. 1t was with this in mind
that we stopped to look at the old
pine 4.-...a
I'm pretty sure that trees got three
thousand feet Of lumber in it," Addison
remarked. Its worth forty dollars
a thousand after it's hauled and saw
ed. There's hundred dollars worth
of lumber in that tree if we could only
get 1t out"
That's where the hitch comes" l
said. 1T leans ten feet out Of plumb.
1t Is bound to fall into that gully"
There ought to be some way Of get
ting It," Addison said. Lets ask the
old squire II he will let us have it."
Accordingly, as we sat at supper
that night, after speaking Of the young
cattle. Addison said:
"Sir, may We have Stoss Pond pine
for our school expenses next spring."
The old squire laughed.
Il have looked at that tree many
time" he said. Samson himself
could not push 1t over this way; and
1t would be a pity to smash it up in
the gully"
But may we have 1t if we can fell
1t this way?" AID asked.
YES" said the squire, eff you can
fell it this way"
Addison said no more; but after
wards, between ourselves, we talked it
over. BY chopping a scarf into a
leaning tree on the side toward which
you wish it to fall, then saving into it
on the other side, and driving in stee!
wedges, such as are used in splitting
four-foot logs for cord wood, tree
can be forced over when it does not
lean too heavily. But do not believe
Stoss Pond pine could have been made
to fall south by that method. 1t
leaned too heavily to the gully and
was too large a tree to be lifted over
hY wedges,