Larch-trees and Deer 



lake, or anything else which gives an impression of 

 grandeur or sublimity), my pond had a mischievous 

 way of hinting, when you were most comfortable, 

 that it was hiding a secret ; that it might show you, 

 if it would, a much better scene than that you 

 looked upon. It was shaped somewhat like an 

 immense pair of spectacles, having two lobes that 

 were flashing bright, with a narrow band of darker 

 water between; and, what with its bending shores 

 or intervening larches, you could never see the 

 whole of it from any one place. So, like eyes that 

 hide their subtlest lights of whim or fancy under 

 glasses, it often seemed to be holding something 

 in reserve, something which it would not reveal 

 unless you searched for it. After watching awhile 

 from one beautiful or restful spot, you began to 

 feel or imagine that some comedy was passing 

 unseen on the other half of the pond ; and though 

 you resisted the feeling at first, sooner or later 

 you crept through the screen of larches to know 

 if it were true. 



On every side of the pond save one, where a 

 bank of evergreen made velvet shadows inter- 

 mingled with spots of heavenly blue, the shores 

 were thickly spread with mosses, which began to 

 color gloriously in midsummer, the colors deep- 

 ening as the season waned, till the reflecting water 

 appeared as the glimmering center of a gorgeous 



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