24 Lily-Ponds. 



All the beauty of nature and all the life of the forest gather spontaneously 

 about a lily-pond. Here assemble the water-birds of various plume, attracted 

 by the fishes, the insects, and the plants that are abundant near the shore. 

 The singing-birds also make here their tuneful haunts, where vegetation is 

 fully stocked with insect-life. Nowhere is there so much animation, apart 

 from human abodes, as on the grassy banks and wooded eminences that 

 surround tlie pond ; nowhere is there so much beauty outside of human 

 art. The variegated summer-duck finds seclusion here in the umbrage of 

 trees and rushes, and subsistence in the shallows, abounding with Lemna, 

 water-cresses, and other edible plants ; and the youthful angler, standing 

 on the shore, watches with delight the little Spotted Tattler as it runs nim- 

 bly upon the lily-pads, then casts his line over beds of aquatic flowers as 

 sweet as a garden of hyacinths. 



If we follow the paths that make their labyrinthine course around the 

 pond, we shall observe the wealth of beauty with which Nature has encom- 

 passed it. These paths, the chance-work of cattle, — picturesque artists 

 unconscious of their power, — are ever enticing us into some dew-bespangled 

 nook, fringed with mosses, or garlanded with ferns ; or leading us up some 

 gentle eminence that affords a view of the pond and its irregular margin, 

 and, through the openings of the wood, a peep into the neighboring land- 

 scape. Nowhere do we meet with so many pleasant surprises, where the 

 precipitous banks, indented with inlets and covered with wood, conceal 

 all intimation of the approaching view\ 



To' one who is any thing of a voluptuary, there is no greater temptation 

 than to float along the shores of the pond in a little skiff", and contemplate 

 the scenery without wearisome toil. From a boat we see only the perfect 

 sides of the trees, where, meeting with no impediment, they spread out 

 their full and natural proportions. Around the water, every outline is per- 

 fectly shaded with a pencilling peculiar to Nature, and moulded into a thou- 

 sand fantastic shapes, without uniformity, and yet without abruptness. Na- 

 ture uses her different vegetable forms lo produce certain effects : the elm 

 and the birch constitute her flowing and drooping lines ; the swamp-oak, 

 with its gnarled and sturdy branches, contributes to her expressions of 

 grandeur ; and the silver-spangled foliage of the hemlock adds both splen- 

 dor and grace. All these and multitudes of other species she has distrib- 



