152 UNDER THE TREES. 



erary art. Many a time as we sat before the study 

 fire and finished the reading of some volume that 

 had yielded us unmixed delight, we had said to 

 each other that we should surely find it in Arden, 

 and read it again in an atmosphere in which the 

 most delicate and beautiful meanings would be 

 come as clear as the exquisite tracery of frost 

 on the study windows. That we should find all 

 the classics there we had not the least doubt ; 

 who could imagine a community of intelligent 

 persons without Homer and Dante and Shake 

 speare and Wordsworth ! How the volumes 

 would be housed we did not try to divine ; but 

 that we should find them there we did not think 

 of doubting. Our chief thought was of the prin 

 ciple of selection, long sought after by lovers 

 of books but never yet found, which we were 

 certain would be easily discovered when we came 

 to look along the shelves of the libraries in Ar 

 den. With what delight we anticipated the long 

 days when we should read together again, and 

 amid such novel surroundings, the books we loved ! 

 For, although our home contained few luxuries, it 

 had fed the mind ; there was not a great soul in 

 literature whose name was not on the shelves of 

 our library, and the companionships of that room 

 made our quiet home more rich in gracious and 

 noble influences than many a palace. 



And yet we had been in the Forest several 

 months before we even thought of books ; so 



