108 BOUI/DER REVERIES. 



ruled over every one of these far spreading 

 acres. To-day in many places only the sugar 

 maples remain, too precious to be felled for the 

 few paltry dollars which they would bring. 

 Yielding in spring the sweetness of their sap, 

 in summer the shelter of their shade, they are 

 but sad reminders of the once noble forest 

 which, less than two-score years ago, covered 

 this fair domain of Central Indiana. 



Even the maples are fast disappearing before 

 the ravages of time. The lightning's blast, the 

 summer's winds, fierce and strong, the toothed 

 jaws of the borer, each season bring to earth 

 some half dozen or more from almost every 

 grove. Gray, sturdy, moss bedecked, with firm, 

 hard wood suited to many needs of man wood 

 within whose cells the chemistry of nature be- 

 gets sweets fit for a fairy's palate may those, 

 whose boughs swing lovingly o'er these placid 

 pools before me, long live and prosper. 



XXV. 



Aug. 30, '03. A gray, forbidding sky above, 

 a cool north wind as an accompaniment, these 



