The thundering of water of the fall made it hard for them to just sit and talk so they made their way to the top of the falls and sat on a stump a few yards from the stream. Though the area was surrounded by tall pines the stump was in full sunshine. The brackens were just starting to show their fiddle shaped heads above the soil.

The banks of the stream had been eroded by the spring runoff of years past and a large pine tree that had been dead long before either of the two was born had fallen as result of the erosion and a winter storm. It fell angled across the stream just above the fall so the root was just upstream from the fall and the tip was on the far side on the hill above the center of the pool. Thus part of the log was above the pool.

.

The sugar pine had been straight and well over one hunderd feet tall. No one knew why the tree had died and now no one much cared. The tree had just uprooted so part of the root was exposed and still had clumps of soil clinging to it.

"Look an elephant," Seth exclaimed.

"What are you talking about?" Peter looked in the direction Seth was pointing which looked like he was pointing to the root of the fallen tree.

"There about halfway up in the center of the roots. There is an elephant."

Peter was not sure what his friend meant but as he continued to look he saw what really did look a lot like an elephant. A clump of dirt formed the head and body while broken branches of the root system made tusks and a trunk.

They laughed and talked about the "elephant" which lead their discussion off to a talk about the tree itself. Each had their own idea of how it had died and which storm had brought it down last winter. Suddenly Seth jumped up and started running towards the tree shouting back as he did, "come on Peter lets go over to the other side."

Seth started climbing the roots and Peter yelled for him to stop. "It might roll or fall and if it did we would be killed."

"Oh come on, or are you a yellow?" By that time Seth was at what had been the base of the old tree and was starting to work his way through the dead limbs across the stream.

"Seth get back here!"

The boy would not listen to his friend and made his way over the middle of the raging stream. He turned back and shouted, "See it is easy," as he danced something like an Irish jig.

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