1 76 UNDER THE TREES. 



familiar association as well as by frequent neighbor- 

 liness in the woods of Arden. It had happened 

 again and again that we had found ourselves to 

 gether in the recesses of the Forest, and enchanting 

 beyond all speech had been those days and nights 

 of mingled talk and dreams. 



The Poet is one of the friends whose coming is 

 peculiarly welcome because it always harmonizes 

 with the mood of the moment, and no speech is 

 needed to bring us into agreement. Rosalind took 

 the visitor into our plan at once, and urged him to 

 go with us on this mysterious journey ; whereupon 

 he told us that, by one of those delightful coinci 

 dences which are always happening to people of 

 kindred tastes and aims, this very errand had 

 brought him to our door. The time had come, he 

 said, when he could no longer resist the longing for 

 Arden ! We all smiled at that sudden outburst ; 

 how well we knew what it meant ! After months of 

 going our ways dutifully in the dust and heat of the 

 world, the longing for Arden would on the instant 

 become irresistible. Come what might, the hunger 

 for perfect comprehension and fellowship, the thirst 

 for the beauty and repose of the deep woods, must 

 be satisfied, and forsaking whatever was in hand we 

 fled incontinently across the invisible boundaries 

 into that other and diviner country. No sooner had 

 the Poet made his confession than we hastened to 

 make ours, and, without further consideration, we 

 resolved the very next day to shake the dust from 



