4 THE CLERK OF THE WOODS 



columbine drooping and swaying so grace- 

 fully, its honey-jars upside down, the saxi- 

 frage holding upright its cluster of tiny white 

 cups, like so many wine-glasses on a tray. 

 Both are children's flowers, an honorable 

 class, and have in themselves, to my ap- 

 prehension, a kind of childish innocence and 

 sweetness. If we picked no other blossoms, 

 down in the Old Colony, we always picked 

 these two these and the nodding anemone 

 and the pink lady's-slipper. 



This showy orchid, by the way, I was 

 pleased a year ago to see in bloom side by 

 side with the trailing arbutus. One was 

 near the end of its flowering season, the other 

 just at the beginning, but there they stood, 

 within a few yards of each other. This was 

 in the Franconia Notch, at the foot of Echo 

 Lake, where plants bloom when they can, 

 rather than according to any calendar known 

 to down-country people; where within the 

 space of a dozen yards you may see the 

 dwarf cornel, for example, in all stages of 

 growth ; here, where a snowbank stayed late, 

 just peeping out of the ground, and there, 

 in a sunnier spot, already in full bloom. 



