BIRCH BROWSINGS 187 



same moment we heard the stamping of our team in 

 the barn. We sat down and laughed heartily over 

 our good luck. Our desperate venture had resulted 

 better than we had dared to hope, and had shamed 

 our wisest plans. At the house our arrival had 

 been anticipated about this time, and dinner was 

 being put upon the table. 



It was then five o'clock, so that we had been in 

 the woods just forty-eight hours; but if time is only 

 phenomenal, as the philosophers say, and life only 

 in feeling, as the poets aver, we were some months, 

 if not years, older at that moment than we had been 

 two days before. Yet younger, too, — though this 

 be a paradox, — for the birches had infused into us 

 some of their own suppleness and strength. 



1869. 



