196 LAND OF THE LINGERING SNOW. 



and I appeared to have expanded beyond our 

 proper dimensions. The carpet under this grove 

 was woven of beautiful forms. Its warp was of 

 arbutus, false Solomon seal, checkerberry, straw- 

 berry, and potentilla, its woof of clintonia, hob- 

 ble bush, sarsaparilla, skunk currant, twisted 

 stalk, and columbine. 



The arbutus was heavily laden with flowers 

 which had spent their sweetness on birds and 

 breezes. They were dry, and their lovely tints 

 had changed to chestnut and russet. A great 

 bed of anemones rippled in the wind. They 

 seemed to be four weeks behind their sisters, 

 which I had found so abundant at Heard's 

 Island. In a low tree above them a junco 

 called to his mate, and I felt confident that this 

 mountain top had seemed to them a comfortable 

 nesting spot. Two thousand feet upward is 

 almost as good as two hundred miles northward. 

 The Nashville warblers which I saw on or near 

 the summit seemed also to agree to this prin- 

 ciple. 



At half-past two we started down the moun- 

 tain, and although our eccentric horse was even 

 more anxious to go down than to go up, we suc- 

 ceeded in seeing more of the view than while 

 ascending. At the foot of the north slope of 

 the mountain lay Wachusett Pond, a charming 

 sheet of water, reminding me by its location and 



