Page:What to do for Uncle Sam; a first book of citizenship (IA whattodoforuncle00bail).pdf/167



When the American Indian was the only dweller in our country he lived in the wide forests of the land. It seemed to him that the great pine trees, pointing up toward the sky, were his friends. He tried to understand the speech of the wild birds and the squirrels who lived in them, and he cut down very few trees. He liked the wilderness of the woods. He could hide there and be safe.

Then the American Colonist came, and he had quite a different idea about the forests that he found in his new home. He began cutting down the trees to build log cabins, to burn for fire-wood, and to make a place for new roads. Sometimes in the early days of our United States, a whole piece of wood land would be cut clean and only a mass of stumps left that was burned out to clear the land.

The United States grew very fast, and there was more and more need of logs for making railroad ties, boards for building houses, stores and mills. No one thought very much about the many years a pine tree had been slowly growing, but Rh