Music of the Wild 



flowers had flourished: anemones and violets. 

 Bloodroot had lifted bloom waxen-pure and white, 

 and its exquisitely cut and veined slivery, blue- 

 green leaves, set on pink coral stems, were yet 

 thrifty. Now there were flowers, fruits, berries, 

 and nuts in a profusion the fields never know, and 

 with few except the insects, birds, butterflies, and 

 squirrels to feast upon them. You could produce 

 a rain of luscious big blackberries by shaking a 

 branch. 



There were traces of a straggling snake-fence 



The in one place, on top of which the squirrels romped 



Forest anc j p^yed. This could not have extended far, 



because the impenetrable swamp that soon met the 



forest stretched from sight. 



Then the Almighty made the work of man un- 

 necessary by inclosing the forest in a fence of His 

 design, vastly to my liking. First was found a 

 tangle of shrubs that wanted their feet in the damp 

 earth and their heads in the light. Beneath them 

 I stopped to picture tall, blue bellflower, late blue- 

 bells, and spiderwort, w r ith its peculiar leafage and 

 bloom. There was the flame of foxfire, the laven- 

 der and purple of Joe-Pye weed, ironwort, and 

 asters just beginning to show color, for it was mid- 

 dle August, and late summer bloom met early fall. 

 There were masses of yellow made up of golden- 

 rod beginning to open, marigold, yellow daisies, 

 and cone-flowers. 



28 



