V. 



THE SHARP-TAILED GROUSE. 



SWIFT little streams, pure as the drip from an 

 iceberg, sunk in banks of tangled grass, from the 

 depths of which the gleam of the darting trout 

 wakes precious memories, wind among alders 

 interlacing into arcades above them, and through 

 groves of plum, viburnum, and hazel from which 

 sounds the occasional drumming of the ruffed 

 grouse. On each side open prairie rolls in grass 

 and ferns, starred with the gold of the lady- 

 slipper, toned down with the soft pink of the 

 phlox and the blue of the lupin. Rising from 

 this are long swells dotted with oaks that stand 

 like trees in some ancient apple-orchard. Brightly 

 green the white birch nods up on the scene from 

 the surrounding ridges, and miles away the eye 

 can sweep to where the maple and aspen rise in 

 tier upon tier along the sides of the higher bluffs. 



78 



