IN ELYSIAN FIELDS 179 



the shaded places, and above, the stars hung like dia- 

 mond lanterns in the arch of heaven. Turning from the 

 grassy road into the thicket, a fusillade of fairy shot from 

 the witch-hazel brush bombarded the advancing troop. A 

 gray owl hooted derisively, and a sleepy crow made a 

 cynical protest, while there was a flutter of heavy birds 

 among the dry leaves of the oak, and a ghostly four- 

 footed beast, gray and lithe, checked the happy shouts of 

 the young folks as it slipped across the path silently out of 

 sight, uncanny and weird, until a plaintive "meow" be- 

 trayed the unrecognized family cat prowling for field 

 mice. 



The opened consciousness sharpened in the culture of 

 the garden awakened every child instinct to sights and 

 sounds of the grove. Who will ever forget the foray 

 among the walnuts and hickories, or the picture of the 

 blazing bonfire, the sparks flying upward in jewels of 

 light to vanish in the gloom intensified by the contrast of 

 ruddy flames'? On the edge of the circle yellow pen- 

 nants of the witch-hazel fluttered as if waved by the 

 hands of gnomes, and the snapping of twigs and fall of 

 nuts created a new world of sight and sound. 



At last, when the logs had burned low, the happy troop 

 trailed back as they had come, the physical senses stimu- 

 lated by the odors, the mysterious rustlings, the scented 

 atmosphere, and the glamour of autumn veiled in the 



