m that tumbles from their heights wears away a little. The
light snow and lighter air are heavy on those heights of steel, and will
make them into dust at last. Your inward fires will cool, and the air
that clothes you like a delicate robe will shrink and vanish, and leave
you naked to the sun. I shall come to your bosom and be quiet, and you
will find the bourne of death likewise, and we shall swing together
round and round And the fires of the sun will cool, and you will go
spinning in blackness, and split in silent explosions of cold in the
blind dark. Dying heart, beating strong in full manhood! dying earth,
smiling and yearning there with pity and rest in your bosom! we are but
creatures of a day--my day the briefer. And that would matter little if
I had been worthy of my day. But I have played the fool with life, and
have earned my own contempt and creep into my hiding-place with shame.'

He strolled back to the tent, and whether he would have it or no, and
whether he would believe it or no, the inward voice spoke now and then.
Twice in the wide daylight he stood still, and his hair crisped and his
blood tingled. The voice was there, and yet he could not guess what it
had to say to him. It was as though it spoke in a language to which he
had no key.

As he sat musing his eye fell upon the axe, and he started up and seized
it as if suddenly reminded of some forgotten urgent duty. He fell
to work at the big tree again, and laboured doggedly till nightfall.
Inexperienced as he was, he brought observation and intelligence to the
task, and knew already the kind of stroke which told most with the least
expenditure of effort. When he could see no longer, he leaned gasping on
the axe, and gave a grim nod of the head. 'I shall have you down.'

He was at it again next morning light and early. He toiled all day.
The great pine leaned somewhat over the cliff, and though the angle was
slight, it told as the gash deepened, and when the sun dipped over the
top of the western mountain the huge doomed thing gave its first groan
and hung a little towards its grave. At this sign the tired worker fell
to with a freshened vigour. He was still striking when the royal head
bowed, and then swept downward with a rush. He sprang to one side just
in time to avoid the backward kick and the enormous flying splinters.
Ten feet from its base and a hundred from its lowest branch the trunk
caught the edge of the rock. The leverage and the weight