XV 



HIDDEN among the larches at the lower end 

 of my pond was a tiny outgoing stream, which 

 had proved hard to find when first I explored the 

 region, and almost impossible to follow afterward. 

 Under a fallen log, so weathered and mossy that 

 it seemed part of the natural shore, a volume of 

 water escaped without ripple or murmur, wander- 

 ing away under bending grasses to lose itself in 

 an alder swamp, where innumerable channels of- 

 fered it lingering passage. From the swamp it 

 found its way, creepingly, among brooding cedars 

 to a little brook, which went singing far down 

 through the woods to Upper Pine Pond; and 

 beyond that on the farther side was a long dead- 



[298] 



