and there a great clearance that should seem to have
made itself. What sort of a track would a hurricane make here,
for instance?'

'A hurricane!' said Mr. Falkirk, facing round upon his ward.

'Rather indiscriminate in its action,' observed Rollo.

'The clearance a hurricane makes in a forest,' Mr. Falkirk
went on, 'is generally in the tree tops. The ground is left a
wreck.'

'Any system of clearing that I know, brings the trees to the
ground,' said Wych Hazel. 'But I mean--I like the woods dearly
as they are, Mr. Falkirk; but _if_ I meddled with them, then I
would have something to shew for it. I would have thoughts
instead of the trees, and vistas full of visions. If anything
is cut here, it ought to be in a broad hurricane track right
down to the West, where

"The wind shall seek them vainly, and the sun
Gaze on the vacant space for centuries."

I do not like fussing with such woods.'

'What thought is expressed by a wide system of devastation?'
asked Rollo, facing her.

'Power. Do not you like power, Mr. Rollo?' she said with a
demure arch of her eyebrows.

Rollo bit his lips furtively but vigorously, and then demanded
to know if Napoleon was her favourite character in history.

'No,' said Wych Hazel--'he did not know what to do with his
power when he had it. A very common mistake, Mr. Rollo, you
will find.'

'Don't make it,' said he, smiling.

'What are you talking about?' said Mr. Falkirk, turning round
upon them. 'Miss Hazel, we are here in obedience to your
wishes. What do you propose to do, now we are here? Do you
know what needs doing?'

'What does, Mr. Falkirk?--in your opinion?' She came close to
him, linking her hands upon his arm. 'Tell me first, and then
I will tell you.'

'There must be a great many trees cut, Miss Hazel; they have
grown up to crowd upon each other very mischievously. And a
large quantity of saplings and underbrush must be cleared
away. You see where I have begun to mark trees for the axe.'

'Truly, sir, I do! Mr. Falkirk, that bent oak is a beauty.'

'It will never make a fine tree. And the oak beside it will.'

'Well--it is to be congratulated,' said Miss Hazel, pensively.
'But what is to become of my poor woods, at that rate? There
is an elm with a branch too many on one side; and a birch
keeping house lovingly with a hemlock. If "woodcraft" means
only such line-and-rule decimation, Mr. Falkirk--'

'I don't know what _you_ mean by woodcraft, my dear. I