74 WAKE-ROBIN 



pads, which our willing fancies readily shaped into 

 a deer. As we were eagerly waiting some move- 

 ment to confirm this impression, it lifted up its 

 head, and, lo! a great blue heron. Seeing us ap- 

 proach, it spread its long wings and flew solemnly 

 across to a dead tree on the other side of the lake, 

 enhancing rather than relieving the loneliness and 

 desolation that brooded over the scene. As we 

 proceeded it flew from tree to tree in advance of us, 

 apparently loth to be disturbed in its ancient and 

 solitary domain. In the margin of the pond we 

 found the pitcher- plant growing, and here and there 

 in the sand the closed gentian lifted up its blue 

 head. 



In traversing the shores of this wild, desolate 

 lake, I was conscious of a slight thrill of expecta- 

 tion, as if some secret of Nature might here be 

 revealed, or some rare and unheard-of game dis- 

 turbed. There is ever a lurking suspicion that the 

 beginning of things is in some way associated with 

 water, and one may notic* that in his private walks 

 he is led by a curious attraction to fetch all the 

 springs and ponds in his route, as if by them was 

 the place for wonders and miracles to happen. 

 Once, while in advance of my companions, I saw, 

 from a high rock, a commotion in the water near 

 the shore, but on reaching the point found only the 

 marks of a musquash. 



Pressing on through the forest, after many adven- 

 tures with the pine-knots, we reached, about the 

 middle of the afternoon, our destination, Nate's 



