Why is it so pleasant to strike?
What secret instinct is it that makes the delivery of a blow with axe or hammer so exhilarating?
The wilder frenzy of the sword--the fury of striking with the keen blade, which overtakes men even now when they come hand to hand, and which was once the life of battle--seems to arise from the same feeling.

Then, as the sharp edge of the axe cuts deep through the bark into the wood, there is a second moment of gratification.

The next blow sends a chip spinning aside; and by-the-bye never stand at the side of a woodman, for a chip may score your cheek like a slash with a knife.

But the shortness of man's days will not allow him to cut down many trees.

In imagination I sometimes seem to hear the sounds of the axes that have been ringing in the forests of America for a hundred years, and envy the joy of the lumbermen as the tall pines toppled to the fall.