134 UNDER THE TltEES. 



nobody carries his work like a pack on his back 

 instead of leaving it behind him as the sun leaves 

 the earth when the day is over and the calm stars 

 shine in the unbroken silence of the sky. Rosalind 

 and I were entirely conscious of the transformation 

 going on within us, and were not slow to submit 

 ourselves to its beneficent influence. We felt that 

 Arden would not put all its resources into our 

 hand until we had shaken off the dust and parted 

 from the fret of the world we had left behind. 



In those first inspiring days we went oftenest to 

 the heart of the pines, where the moss grew so deep 

 that our movements were noiseless ; where the light 

 fell in subdued and gentle tones among the closely 

 clustered trees ; and where no sound ever reached 

 us save the organ music of the great boughs when 

 the wind evoked their sublime harmonies. Many 

 a time, as we have sat silent while the tones of that 

 majestic symphony rose and fell about us, we 

 seemed to become a part of the scene itself ; we 

 felt the unfathomed depth of a music produced by 

 no conscious thought, wrought out by no conscious 

 toil, but akin, in its spontaneity and naturalness, 

 with the fragrance of the flower. And with these 

 thrilling notes there came to us the thought of the 

 calm, reposeful, irresistible growth of Nature; 

 never hasting, never at rest ; the silent spreading 

 of the tree, the steady burning of the star, the 

 noiseless flow of the river ! Was not this sublime 

 unconsciousness of time, this glorious appropria- 



