TANGLE-LEAF PAPERS. 73 
gourd at his well, and obtained permission to 
ride across his wide pasture land to a road a 
half-mile distant. I mounted in his barnyard, 
and, while he held opena big gate for me, 
dashed out at my best speed into the level 
grass-field, where the dandelions shone like 
stars. A herd of steers, as I approached them, 
eyed me wildly for awhile, then ran away at a 
thundering pace, with their tails whirling and 
their heads high in air. I had to push across 
thirty acres of fresh ploughed land (a very unin- 
teresting and tiresome operation) before I 
reached the road. Now came a long spin over 
a surface just damp enough to be elastic, and 
although the road-bed had been gravelled it was 
quite free from ugly stones. The air had 
freshened and was blowing in sweet gusts 
from the south. 
The sunshine was growing in power; one 
could almost hear the buds exploding. A 
clover-field beside the road was a lovely 
sight, though not yetin bloom. Its dark green 
tufts looked as if they had gushed out of the 
earth ina moment of ecstatic impulse. In- 
deed, some occult force made itself manifest 
in every bud and blade, and stalk and leaflet, 
from which one could not fail to catch a fine 
mental tonic. I passed a level reach of maple 
wood in which grew scattered patches of man- 
drake that looked like the grass-green tents of 
_lilliputian armies. In places the ground was 
rosy white with the blooms of the claytonia, 
or yellow with the stars of the adder-tongue. 
What sweet and sure alchemic recipes 
Mother Earth gives us, if we could but read 
them! How unfailing are her schemes for 
the perpetuation of life, freshness, strength, 
