BIRCH BROWSINGS. 19 I 



keep his lake, and the enchanters guard his possession ! 

 I doubted if he had ever found it the second time, or 

 if any one else ever had. 



My companions, who were quite fresh, and who had 

 not felt the strain of baffled purpose as I had, assumed 

 a more encouraging tone. After I had rested a while, 

 and partaken sparingly of the bread and whiskey, which 

 in such an emergency is a great improvement on bread 

 and water, I agreed to their proposition that we should 

 make another attempt. As if to reassure us, a robin 

 sounded his cheery call near by, and the winter-wren, 

 the first I had heard in these woods, set his music-box 

 going, which fairly ran over with fine, gushing, lyrical 

 sounds. There can be no doubt but this bird is one 

 of our finest songsters. If it would only thrive and 

 sing well when caged, like the canary, how far it would 

 surpass that bird ! It has all the vivacity and versa- 

 tility of the canary, without any of its shrillness. Its 

 song is indeed a little cascade of melody. 



We again retraced our steps, rolling the stone, as it 

 were, back up the mountain, determined to commit our- 

 selves to the line of marked trees. These we finally 

 reached, and, after exploring the country to the right, 

 saw that bearing to the left was still the order. The 

 trail led up over a gentle rise of ground, and in less 

 than twenty minutes we were in the woods I had passed 

 through when I found the lake. The error I had made 

 was then plain ; we had come off the mountain a few- 

 paces too far to the right, and so had passed down on 



