144 UNDER THE TREES. 



ally drawn into the circle of cheer in the little 

 room. The great world of Nature was for a mo 

 ment out of doors, and there seemed no incongru 

 ity in talking about our own experiences ; we re 

 called the days in the world we had left behind ; 

 we remembered the faces of our neighbors ; we 

 reminded each other of the incidents of our jour 

 ney ; we retold, in antiphonal fashion, the story of 

 our stay in the Forest ; we grew eloquent as we 

 described, one after another, the noble persons we 

 had met there ; our hearts kindled as we became 

 conscious of the wonderful enrichment and en 

 largement of life that had come to us ; and as the 

 varied splendors of the days and scenes of Arden 

 returned in our memories, the spell of the Forest 

 came upon us, and the mysterious cadence of the 

 rain, falling from leaf to leaf, added another and 

 deeper tone to the harmony of our Forest life. 

 The gloom had gone ; we had all the delight of a 

 new experience in our hearts. 



&quot;I am glad it rains,&quot; Rosalind said, as she gave 

 the fire one of her vigorous stirrings ; &quot; I am glad 

 it rains : I don t think we should have realized 

 how lovely it is here if we were not shut in from 

 time to time. One is played upon by so many im 

 pressions that one must escape from them to under 

 stand how beautiful they are. And then I m not 

 sure that even dark days and rain have not some 

 thing which sunshine and clear skies could not 

 give us.&quot; As usual, Rosalind had spoken my 



