Ram's-Heads in Witch Hollow 113 



My boots being high and waterproof, I waded warily 

 through the coarse lush grasses and cat-tail flags, en- 

 countering many deep pools. As I pushed forward, 

 my heart sang in the very joy of living: 



Is this a time to be cloudy and sad, 



When our mother Nature laughs around ; 



When even the deep blue heavens look glad, 



And gladness breathes from the blossoming ground ? ' 



At the west end of the cow-path I came suddenly 

 upon one tall, Purple- Fringed Orchis. This was my 

 first good fortune in finding this beautiful species, al- 

 though I have since found many. I stood long in 

 wonderment and silent adoration before this fragrant 

 beauty of the weird and lonely bogland, rearing its 

 strange fringed petals high above the common swamp 

 grasses. Searching about to the north and south, I 

 found a colony of six more spikes, which assured me 

 that I would be justified in taking the first plant I had 

 found; and placing it with the utmost care in my 

 crowded vasculum, I then proceeded mountainward. 



On the very brow of the hill I wound around to the 

 left, entering the wood-road leading to the Notch Val- 

 ley. A beautiful cold spring gushes out in the heart 

 of this wood, under the hill at the right, near the Cas- 

 cade path. I freshened my flowers here, and hurried 

 on to the famous foot-bridge over Notch Brook, plung- 

 ing on down through the hemlock wood to get a 

 hurried view of the Cascade below. 



' Bryant, The Gladness of Nature, 



