174 THE CLERK OF THE WOODS 



ilization as a mixed good, may be cheered 

 accordingly, 



For to-day, however, I had something else 

 in my eye ; and once back in the road I 

 started for the entrance to what we children 

 knew familiarly as " Millstone " that is to 

 say, Millstone Pasture ; a large, irregular 

 clearing, or half clearing, distinguished by 

 the presence of two broad flat boulders, ly- 

 ing one upon the other. This was among 

 the best of our foraging grounds; a boy's 

 wild orchard orchard and garden in one. 

 Here we gathered all the berries before 

 named, and besides them checkerberries 

 (boxberries), dangleberries, and grapes. 



The path leading into it was still open, 

 but there was no need to go far to discover 

 that here, as in Harvey White's, the wood 

 had got the upper hand of everything else. 

 " I should starve here," I said to myself, 

 " at the very height of the berry season." 

 Nothing looked natural nothing but the 

 superimposed boulders. They had suffered 

 no change, or none except an inevitable 

 " subjective " dwindling. As for the old 

 apple orchard near them (in which I shot 



