BROOK MAGIC 



J3ROOK magic does not begin until 

 you have passed the deep fishing-pool 

 and traversed the reedy meadow where 

 the flagroot loves to go swimming and 

 the muskrats come to spice their mid- 

 night lunches with its pungent root and 

 pile the broad flags for winter nests. 

 You may, if you are alert, feel a touch 

 of its witchery as you wind among the 

 rocks and black alders of the level 

 swamp beyond, for here the ostrich- 

 feather fern lifts its regal plumes as 

 high as your head, and if by any chance 

 you duck under these you have been 

 near the portals of a world where sor- 

 cery is rife, for fern seed has a mysteri- 

 ous power of its own, and the ferns of 

 in 



