B IRocfcg IRoaDsiDe 



blinds us to the outdoor world as firmly rooted 

 indoor opinions. 



We now commenced descending the hill, and 

 soon there was a beautiful hemlock grove in sight. 

 We found on reaching it that the difference in 

 temperature was fully twenty degrees. These 

 hemlocks appeared as of recent growth, none of 

 more than a foot in diameter, and so closely did 

 they stand that their interwoven crowns shut out 

 all sunlight. Every stone on the ground was 

 damp and moss-clad, and the light so dim we could 

 not well see to read. It is night here on a cloudy 

 day. There were no birds flitting through the 

 gloom, although certain warblers might have been 

 expected in such a place. After some minutes had 

 elapsed there was a song not familiar to me that 

 resounded through the grove, filling it with music. 

 The effect was strange. It seemed as if the 

 original utterance was echoed and re-echoed with- 

 out loss of volume. This strange bird, I felt sure, 

 I had never heard before, or did the place play 

 such a trick with the song as to deceive me? 

 This is not an uncommon occurrence. I remem- 

 ber a pewee singing in a cave, and the song was 

 more like the protracted effort of a thrush than the 

 flycatcher's bisyllabic refrain. I wished to re- 

 main until the bird showed itself, but my compan- 

 ions demurred. They knew the tavern was near, 

 and they were hungry. The poetry of the woods, 

 the charms of the fair hillside fields, the grandeur 

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