20 THE Aroosrook Woops. 

And now, as we enter the sweet-smelling woods, its 
fragrance is wafted to us with every little puff of the breeze. 
The resinous woods, pine, fir, spruce, and cedar, with the 
birches and their leaves, the sugar maples and many others, 
are all contributing; even the roots of many plants erowing 
in the warm loose ground beneath our tread are sending up a 
spicy odor, a reminder that they also are no small part of the 
forest’s sweetness. It is a most glorious day, as onward we 
walk over this carpet of leaves that have been smitten by the 
frosts, deluged by the rain, thrashed and blown to the ground 
by the winds, and all of the most beautiful shades, lying 
beside the rocks and mosses, all blending well together. 
The shadows from the trees aboye fall upon it all, with the 
sunlight shining in, softening the edges and fairly mellowing 
all the openings. If it is possible, we think we are made 
better by such scenes, such surroundings as these, and our 
hard hearts softened. And as we, with our packs and rifles 
mount the hills and stop a moment upon the summit to catch 
the breeze upon our warm faces, and see so far away and 
upon each hand, such wide expanse of green and golden 
forest, we are so cheered and refreshed at the prospect — and 
the breeze, that we seem to fairly bound with every step. 
The old, half-sick feeling hanging over us so much at home 
has left us entirely; we felt the change, and missed it 
altogether just as we entered the dense wood. Our appetite, 
poor or indifferent at home, so much so that we often make 
our dear wives (dear to us now because so far away) miser- 
able, to find that after striving hard to please us by cooking 
some favorite dish, we, instead of being kindly thankful for 
their goodness, appeared so indifferent, at times even elevat- 
ing our eyebrows and with a sniff, ask, ‘‘be the pickles all 
