146 FOOTING IT IN FRANCONIA 



budded mountain maple or of yellow birch. 

 Texture, color, shape, veining and folding 

 — all is a piece of Nature's perfect work. 

 No less beautiful — I stop again and again 

 before a bed of them — are the dainty 

 brandling beech-ferns. There is no telling 

 how pretty they are on their slender shining 

 stems. And all the way I am taking leave 

 of the road. I may never see it again. 

 " Good-by, old friend," I say ; and the trees 

 and the brook seem to answer me, " Good- 

 by." 



