WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



The distant hills, the low meadows, the fallow 

 ridges and bushy pastures are all dull purples 

 and browns; a grove of mixed hardwood trees at 

 a distance appears greenish - white below, dusky 

 among the branches, and reddish at the top, where 

 the sunshine is reflected from the new growth of 

 twigs and sprouting buds; and the shadowy side 

 of a group of evergreens forms a mass of black. 



Under the trees the ground is carpeted with a 

 layer of leather-covered old leaves and pine-needles, 

 beaten flat by the flail of the rain and the pressure 

 of snow; and where roily water has soaked into 

 them we often see precise impressions in the mud, 

 reminding us of, and explaining, the perfect casts 

 of leaves common in some rocks, especially those 

 of the coal-measures. The taller dead grass and 

 reeds out in the meadow are less closely matted, 

 and beneath their sheltering arches small animals 

 have crept about all winter, finding plenty of seeds 

 and small fruit, shaken to the ground for their 

 provender. 



Here and there through the wet fields go mys- 

 terious paths, without definite beginning or end, 

 often so faint as hardly to be followed. When 

 were they trodden? By what men or animals? 

 Why were they deserted for the new, muddy ones, 



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