102 Tue Aroostook Woops. 

their sweet fragrance could be almost tasted in the air. Down 
the rocky descent they leave the mossy carpet behind them and 
their feet often grate upon the bleached granite instead. All 
through the dell the birds are chirping and singing, seeming 
to have chosen this cosy sheltered place in preference to the 
higher land to build their nests and rear their young. They 
climb the rise, which, like the bottom of the dell, is thickly 
covered with the old leaves that were only one year since as 
elegant as those above, while here and there a fallen monarch, 
beautifully mossed over, beside, and out of which, thick 
growths of yellow birch are springing up very thriftily, 
enriched by the tree that has had its time, and now lies down 
upon the ground as food for those that follow. 
As they reach the level again they see and pass through the 
beech nut grove; not all beeches, but so many and such 
thrifty, stately trees standing in groups and so generously 
distributed over the ridge, that they feel justified in thus 
naming it. Here, in the fall time of a fruitful year for the 
beeches, and when the frosts have opened the burrs, and the 
blustering winds are sweeping through the branches, come 
the harvesters and the gatherers and later on the gleaners. 
Hearing the sweet rich nuts rattling down upon the dried 
leaves, they hasten forward to the feast; not the school boys 
with happy shoutings, as this is too far away to hear the 
recess bell, but the many dwellers in the forest here. Young 
and old, large and small, those that wander all about the hills 
and ridges, through the leaves, that when dried thoroughly 
by a sunny morning, loudly rustle as they approach, and 
others that fly from tree to tree taking their choice of the 
choicest, before the feast has been spread out and distributed 
over the leafy covering for the large families that feed beneath 
