WILD PASTURES 



island clumps of their own. These were 

 led by the sweet-gale, holding her dark- 

 green silken skirt daintily up, so fra- 

 grant-souled that she fears no evil, 

 trailed by the saucy wild rose, cheerful 

 spiraea, gloomy cassandra, and chubby 

 baby alders. If you watch these you 

 will note that they shiver in the lazy 

 breeze as if they feared the pass to 

 which their temerity may have brought 

 them. Yet there they stand, and the 

 miniature tides swirl about their pink 

 toes and die in the pools behind them, so 

 closely grow the sedges and little marsh 

 plants that fill them until the fishes from 

 the cove nose about their stalks in vain 

 attempt to enter. 



Just outside the bush fringe, where 



the maples are mirrore'd in undulations, 



whirl and skip, each according to his 



kind, the surface insects of the cove. 



52 



