Then, perchance, while we gaze awe-stricken, along comes a merry squirrel, chattering and laughing, to break the spell, running up the trunk with no ceremony, and gnawing off the cones as if they were made only for him; while the carpenter-woodpecker hammers away at the bark, drilling holes in which to store his winter supply of acorns.
[Illustration: YOUNG SUGAR PINE BEGINNING TO BEAR CONES.] Although so wild and unconventional when full-grown, the Sugar Pine is a remarkably proper tree in youth.

The old is the most original and independent in appearance of all the Sierra evergreens; the young is the most regular,--a strict follower of coniferous fashions,--slim, erect, with leafy, supple branches kept exactly in place, each tapering in outline and terminating in a spiry point.

The successive transitional forms presented between the cautious neatness of youth and bold freedom of maturity offer a delightful study.

At the age of fifty or sixty years, the shy, fashionable form begins to be broken up.

Specialized branches push out in the most unthought-of places, and bend with the great cones, at once marking individual character, and this being constantly augmented from year to year by the varying action of the sunlight, winds, snow-storms, etc., the individuality of the tree is never again lost in the general forest.
The most constant companion of this species is the Yellow Pine, and a worthy companion it is.
[Illustration: FOREST OF SEQUOIA, SUGAR PINE, AND DOUGLAS SPRUCE.] The Douglas Spruce, Libocedrus, Sequoia, and the White Silver Fir are also more or less associated with it; but on many deep-soiled mountain-sides, at an elevation of about 5000 feet above the sea, it forms the bulk of the forest, filling every swell and hollow and down-plunging ravine.