300 OLD PLYMOUTH TRAILS 



the grove their rallying place. The trees in 

 growth reach always toward the sun, stretching 

 their limbs longest on the sunny side, and it al- 

 ways seems to me as if in winter they could be 

 seen to yearn in the same direction with the fond 

 fingers of bare twigs. I have an idea that meas- 

 urements made at leaf-fall of one year and again 

 at bud-time of the next would show this. But 

 there is really no need. We have but to go forth 

 in the woods of a clear, still winter morning to 

 feel the impulse ourselves and to know that it is 

 universal. 



Out of this protecting snow at dawn come the 

 sm'all folk of the winter woods and to be with 

 them there is to be at the meeting place of elves. 

 He who is very wise as to their ways may see 

 them, once in a while some one of them, or, if 

 he be very fortunate, more than one. Without 

 doubt to live in the woods always would be to see 

 them all, to acquire to the full the elfin quality 

 one's self and be one of the clan. But they be- 

 come visible only rarely to the occasional visitor, 

 these real elves and hobgoblins, and df ten at the 

 best we must note their presence by the trail they 

 have left behind. Here has passed the rabbit. 

 Since earliest light he has been tracking up the 



