Besides, shrouding is not felling, and I'll risk that much." He went out, and when afternoon came he returned, took a billhook from the woodman's shed, and with a ladder climbed into the lower part of the tree, where he began lopping off--"shrouding," as they called it at Hintock--the lowest boughs.

Each of these quivered under his attack, bent, cracked, and fell into the hedge.

Having cut away the lowest tier, he stepped off the ladder, climbed a few steps higher, and attacked those at the next level.

Thus he ascended with the progress of his work far above the top of the ladder, cutting away his perches as he went, and leaving nothing but a bare stem below him.
The work was troublesome, for the tree was large.

The afternoon wore on, turning dark and misty about four o'clock.