122 MOBNING IN THE NORTH WOODS. 



give the reader an idea of its sterility), now 

 keeping to the road. In such a soil flowers 

 were naturally scarce; but I noticed hous- 

 tonia, phlox, hieracium, senecio, pentstemon, 

 and specularia. Like the brake, the names 

 are suggestive of barrenness. The senecio 

 (ragwort), a species with finely cut leaves 

 (/S'. millefolium'), was first seen on Mission- 

 ary Ridge. There, as here, it had a strange, 

 misplaced appearance in my eyes, looking 

 much like our familiar S, aureus, but grow- 

 ing in dry woods ! 



So the morning passed. The hours were 

 far too brief, and I would have stretched 

 them into the afternoon, but that my trunk 

 was packed for Walden's Eidge. It was 

 necessary to think of getting back to the 

 city, and I took a quicker pace. Two more 

 Kentucky warblers detained me for a mo- 

 ment; a quail sprang up from under my 

 feet ; and on the other side of the way an 

 oven-bird sang — the only one found in the 

 valley. Then I came to the car-track ; but 

 somehow things wore an unexpected look, 

 and a preacher, very black, solemn, and 

 shiny, gave me to understand, in answer to 

 a question, that the city lay not where I 



