playthings that little hands had touched went 

 straight to the heart with an eternal suggest- 

 ing of life and innocence and a childhood that 

 never grows old in the world. I dusted them 

 tenderly with my handkerchief and put them 

 back in their places, and went away softly 

 down the path that led to the other house 

 where the Little Brother to the Bear used 

 to live. 



Everything was changed here, too. The 

 dam that the beavers had built, and that the 

 years had covered over, still stood as strong 

 as ever; but the woods had been cut away, 

 and the pond had dwindled till the wild duck 

 no longer found a refuge there. The ledges 

 were no longer green, for the sun that came in 

 when the big trees fell had killed most of the 

 mosses and ferns that decked them; and the 

 brook's song, though cheery still, was scarcely 

 heard as it trickled and seeped where once 

 it had rushed and tumbled down the woodsy 

 valley, which remained woodsy still, because 

 happily the soil there was too poor to raise 

 anything but brush and cowslips, and so the 

 woodsmen had spared it from desolation. 



