WILDWOOD WAYS 



We may say if we will that it is all 

 a part of that magic of youth that makes 

 a million miracles each spring but that 

 does not explain it. Why should these 

 be so strong and full of life when the 

 fronds of the hay-scented fern, for in- 

 stance, have been shrivelled to dry and 

 crumbling brown fragments under the 

 same conditions? I cannot answer this 

 either. 



Last of all I thought of the polypodys 

 that grow in the rock crevices all down 

 along the glen, and went to see how they 

 fared. It has been a hard year for these 

 little fellows. There must have been 

 weeks at a time during the scorching 

 days of the long summer's drought that 

 their roots, clinging precariously in rock 

 crevices and dependent for moisture 

 wholly on rain and dew, were dry to the 

 tips. The very heat of the rock itself 

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