The saw had begun to dull and Simon was relieved at the pause while his father slid the rasp from his belt and began to put a new edge on the worn teeth.

“Well. What you doing standing there? Why don’t you crown some of those downers before we get going again?”

Simon almost groaned as he grabbed the ax and trudged sullenly to the nearest prostrate tree and paced out sixteen feet, allowing for two eight-foot bolts, and began chiseling into the tapered end of the tree. He cut at thirty degrees one way and then the other, and when he was deep enough finished it off by lifting the ax straight over his head and driving it into the wedged cut in the trunk. He crowned three before Jacob whistled him back. He swung his arms as he kicked his way through the trampled snow to ease the steady burn lodged in his forearms and between his shoulder blades.

Since the saw was sharp Jacob walked over to an especially thick tree and they started with the usual cut. Jacob bit his lip and Simon grimaced as they worked the cut deeper and deeper. At one point the saw jerked through Simon’s numbed fingers and Jacob stumbled back without Simon’s weight on the other end. Simon lunged for the handle and once he had it they kept cutting until they were through, both of them huffing in the frozen air. They pulled the blade free and began a level cut that would intersect the angle. They worked it through and when they were done Jacob leaned the saw against a set of hazel brush that bowed under the saw’s weight. Then he lifted the ax and knocked out the triangular block of wood from the base of the tree with the butt end.

They both looked up, waiting for the tree to fall, but it just swayed there, reluctant to move. Jacob shook his head, looked down at the cut and then craned his neck to look up again.

“Must not be cut deep enough,” he said to himself. They lifted the saw again and started cutting from the other side.

After five passes of the saw they popped through, roughing the stringy fibers on the outside, then pulled the saw clear again and stood back and watched the tree for motion. It hung without tilting one way or the other and then its weight caused it to slide off the cut toward the space where they’d knocked out the wedge. The butt of the tree slammed down and Simon and Jacob felt the ground shudder. Still the tree didn’t fall. Instead, the mass of branches on one side caused it to rotate slightly, and its whole motion, the drop and turn, looked like a slow arboreal curtsy. After that it began to fall.