WOODLAND PATHS 



on the valleys below. It is a losing fight, 

 for all day long the golden forces of the 

 sun roll up the land and fill all the hollows 

 and hold them in serene warmth and peace. 

 However hard last night's frost, however 

 stiff the gale overhead, I can always find 

 bowl-shaped depressions where summer 

 already coaxes the winter-worn woodland. 

 The very first squatters in this land, 

 whose presence antedates those people of 

 record who held land by deeds and grants, 

 seem to have found and loved these little 

 sun-warmed hollows too, for in them I 

 find the only traces of this pioneer occu- 

 pation. Records in ink or on parchment 

 of these pioneers are few, indeed, and these 

 which they left on the land itself are but 

 slight. Here a depression may show 

 where a tiny cellar was dug, though no 

 trace of stone work will be found. It was 

 easier for the pioneer to frame his cellar 

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