A DAY IN JUNE 133 



THE AFTERNOON 



I spoke a little warmly, perhaps, at tlie 

 end of the forenoon chapter. Echo Lake, 

 at the foot of it, is one of the places where I 

 love best to linger, and to-day it was more 

 attractive even than usual ; the air of the 

 clearest, the sun bright, the mountain woods 

 all in young leaf, the water shining. But 

 the black flies, which had left me undisturbed 

 on the railroad, though I sat still by the half 

 hour, once I reached the lake would allow 

 me no rest. 



It was twelve days since my first visit. 

 The snow was gone, and the trailing arbutus 

 had dropped its last blossoms ; but both 

 kinds of shadbush, standing in the hollow 

 where a snow-bank had lain ten days ago, 

 were still in fresh bloom. Pink lady's-slip- 

 pers were common (more buds than blossoms 

 as yet), and the pink rhodora also ; with 

 gold-thread, star-flower, dwarf cornel, hous- 

 onia, and the painted trillium. Chokeberry 

 bushes were topped with handsome clusters 

 of round, purplish buds. 



The brightest and prettiest thing here, 



