ASPETUCK 79 



that I loved the best. It wore the shape of 

 sweeping Hemlocks, who guided me between the 

 jutting rocks and swayed as they bent above, 

 crooning my cradle song. Many stories they 

 told me, and legends that they only speak be- 

 tween themselves, when they twist and threaten, 

 defying all the winds, even Kabibonokka himself. 

 When I slipped from their arms, they moaned 

 and cried, 4 Do not forget us when you are a 

 river ! Do not forget those who rocked your 

 cradle ! ' I promised, but when I saw them next, 

 alas ! I was filled with sorrow. 



"But then I was full of pride. Humph, I 

 thought, ' when you are a river V What am I now, 

 pray, but a river? And I fretted at the tall 

 grasses that would not move for me, until I was 

 all afoam and thought that an oak leaf that fell 

 on me was one of the ships that the Hemlocks 

 talked about. In hurrying around the corner of 

 a rock, I met half a dozen other streams like my- 

 self, who said they were travelling together until 

 they should become a river; and as I could not 

 turn back, I joined them, but feeling quite dis- 

 couraged to find how small I really was. 



" Heart of Nature whispered, 4 Do not be dis- 

 couraged ; no one thing in the Plan is anything of 

 itself but depends always upon some other thing. 7 



