AFTERMATH 337 



Spruce tips curve like the feathered claws of the 

 Snow Owl, or bristle beneath like the Winter foot- 

 .gear of. the ruffed grouse. The longer, soft, five- 

 clustered leaves of White Pine are alternately ruffled 

 or matted, like the coat of some deeply furred wood 

 animal, while the Hemlock, abandoning all resist- 

 ance, bends, and loses itself in drapery. 



At the upper end of the Hollow, the Witch 

 Hazels again appeared close to the road edge, 

 making a lattice through which shone the deep, 

 brown -shadowed water of the double pond, the 

 borders now dank and unlovely with decaying 

 reeds, weeds, and the general leaf wreckage that 

 had drifted to the banks. Soon the scene changed 

 swiftly, and there followed along the uphill road- 

 way to the Ridge a line of stunted Red Cedars, 

 the outer branches set thick with frosted, light 

 blue berries rather larger than those the Bayberry 

 wears, the outline of the pointed tree -tops against 

 the bare steep speeding one in thought far north, 

 almost to the "Land of Little Sticks." 



The cross - road on the hilltop was a dreary 

 stretch, wind-swept even in Summer. Now it was 

 difficult to see how the scanty growth of stunted 

 Maples and a few Hazel hedges bound by Catbrier 

 had managed to cling to it. Once more below, 



V 



