28 VOICES FROM THE WOODLANDS. 



fallen trees are changed in the lowest strata of peat-mosses, 

 for charcoal is said to be a powerful antiseptic, and capable 

 of purifying the most unwholesome and stagnant water : 

 that, further, vegetable gums and resins act in the same way. 

 The small voice ceased ; and the listener went his way, 

 reflecting on the strange and wondrous qualities which 

 even a small moss developes at her appointed season. He 

 thought, too, of the vast growth of mosses, and the causes 

 from which their growth originates ; of that wondrous 

 alchemy which, by a transmuting power, absorbs into a dry 

 and lifeless mass its all of greenness and luxuriance. 



