Idben (Srass is <5reen 



Every low cedar and spreading bush was glitter- 

 ing with bead-like dew, and although the summer 

 has just begun, the autumn cries of many crows 

 filled the air. The river shore had been much in 

 mind since the recent flood, but I was not pre- 

 pared for the changes wrought by it when at last, 

 after wading and walking alternately, I reached 

 the island. I had gone across lots, begged ferri- 

 age over the canal, and now for the first time in 

 years was at the island's up-river end, where the 

 elements are forever battling with Nature's effort 

 to have things done decently and in order. Where 

 had been grass, was now gravel ; where had been 

 a woodland tract, were now dead and prostrate 

 trees. Where had been land was now water. 

 How very marked is the instability of stable things! 

 Since the ice age there has been an island and a 

 river here, but perhaps our great-grandfathers 

 would not know them now. 



Know it or not, I knew it then and there as a 

 good place for the forms of wild life I wished to 

 see " critters only a crank could care for," as old 

 Silas Crabtree would say, giving me a significant 

 look. 



In the tangle before me : a mass of raw ma- 

 terial for nature to make something new of, if she 

 did not unmake it after getting started. This is a 

 curious fate of many a nook even in this quiet 

 country.. They are always in a transition state, 

 the rank growth of poison-ivy, only a few weeks 

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