194 BOULDER REVERIES. 



doubtless fashioned for his dwelling or his barn. 

 It has served its purpose for years and now, by 

 the rush of waters, has been carried down into 

 this blue-grass pasture until a walnut tree 

 stopped its onward progress. 



The walnut, the sycamore, the thorn, the 

 maple and the ash, rise from the banks of the 

 stream and yield the coolness of their shade on 

 these sultry August days. The blue-grass, rank 

 and fallen, covers the earth with a dense green 

 carpet, more pleasing, more valuable than any 

 e'er fashioned by the loom of man. The kine 

 graze on its stored juices and find therein a sus- 

 tenance which causes them to wax fat and con- 

 tented. A mild-eyed heifer, instilled with the 

 spirit of inquisitiveness characteristic of her 

 sex, comes and noses at my shoulder. 



The water babbles o'er its stony bed and 

 passes into quiet pools where its onward course 

 is checked. In one of the longest of these, a 

 reach it might be called in a larger stream, 

 green sprays of the water weed 10 float up from 

 the turbid depths. Turtles rise slowly and push 



10 Ulodea canadensis Michx. 



