Adieu to the Woods. 325 



tains, and his quavering notes die away like the voice 

 of a trumpet in the distance. The owl hoots solemnly 

 in the woods, and the frog croaks along the shore. 

 The air moans among the tall old pines, and the tro^^ 

 splashes the water as he leaps in his gladness sib(VQ 

 the surface. The fire flies flash their tiny to'ches, 

 and the stars look ujd from away down in th- quiet 

 waters and down from the sky above you. If you 

 shout, a thousand voices echo back the soind. If 

 you sing, hundreds of voices prolong the soig ; w^hile 

 through all the night sounds, silence se-^ms to be 

 struggling for dominion, and you sa}^, -^iiile a hun- 

 dred voices are heard at once, how still i: is. 



The time to which I had limited m/ tramp in the 

 woods had already expired, and the next morning, 

 while the sun was just showing his great red face 

 through mist and haze over the sunimit of the eastern 

 hills, we bid adieu to these beautiful lakes, the most 

 picturesque and charming in all this broad country, 

 and started for the nearest settlement towards the 

 Champlain. We struck for Franklin Falls, a little 

 hamlet, the one deepest in the forest in that direction, 

 on the Saranac river, eighteen or twenty jnilcs dis- 

 tant. We reached it w^eary enough about three 



