is Ixnintl t<> occur if we don't -to]> and 

 think. I know all this quite well. I'.ut 

 it is of the forest out there on the other 

 side of the road that I am ignorant. I 

 -]>end hours in it dailv, and we -trive 

 like two untrained deaf mutes to make 

 out something of one another's mean- 

 ing, but 1 cannot understand. 



Why, in the middle of the mile of 







mixed tree-, do we find a whole hill- 

 side of pines? Is it true that the moss 

 under the pines is different from the 

 moss under the mixed trees, or do we 

 only fancy so, or is it only accident? 

 Is there a rotation in crops with trees, 

 or why, when there is not one oak in 

 the forest, did they plant the whole last 

 clearing to oaks? 



The roads are splendid in every di- 

 rection ; they are of broken rock, with 

 -and and gravel crushed in with a road- 

 roller. The underbrush is all cleared 

 out. and the carpet of dead leaves is 

 only broken by patches of moss. The 

 prettiest mushrooms grow everywhere; 

 Mime are exactly like edelweiss, and 

 some are pink. There are pink-shelled 

 -nails, too, and great red -nail- without 

 shell>. The fairy very justly observes 

 that when one goes barcfo.it -he notices 

 -nails and mushrooms much more than 

 when wearing shoes. What I notice 

 more than anything else i- the unspeak- 

 able order of it all: not a dead tree, not 

 a broken branch all i- SO <|iii< I till. 



- clean. 



I ; or miles along these hills it i- all 



"planted wood." as the ( lermans say, 

 and all is in the same order. And yet 

 one rarely -ees a workman. Peer, yes, 

 and rabbit- often, but hardly ever a 

 man. Perhaps in Au^u-t there is no 

 need to give the trees attention that 

 is another thing that I must learn. 



There i- one very intere-ting tree 

 among them all. In the midst of tin- 

 forest, on the crown of tlu- ridge -tands 

 a ruined castle where I'.arbaro-sa and 

 all the rest have often come and gone. 

 Mansfield besieged it and took it and 

 wrecked it. and on the mounds of its 

 ruin very large trees have grown and 

 been cut down. But the strangest tree 

 of all lies across the way from the old 

 entrance. I thought at first that it was 

 a mound with trees growing upon it. 

 but the fairy pointed out to me that the 

 mound itself was a tree, vast and 

 hollow. Around the top of -the hollow 

 the- old -hell bunches, as if to cover 

 some sort of ancient scars, and out of 

 each bunch springs a thriving tree. sj\ 

 to ten inches in diameter, which seem- 

 in some odd way to serve itself through 

 the medium of the root- of the old 



stum]). It is SO odd. < llle -ees willows 

 do something like this, but this tree is 

 not a willow. I don't know what it iv 

 i >h. I have much t<> learn. Even this 

 huge old tret' must have it- lesson when 

 1 ran read it. 1 want SO much to learn. 

 I -vmpathi/e as 1 never did bet", .r- with 

 Alfred the T.rcat. And he learned. 



( '/"> />( continued > 



541 



