90 OUTDOOR STUDIES 
cases, it is impossible not to imagine that a pair 
of tiny hands have upheld it, and that the 
pretty head will dip down again and disappear. 
Others, again, have expanded all but the in- 
most pair of white petals, and these spring apart 
at the first touch of the finger on the stem. 
Some spread vast vases of fragrance, six or , 
seven inches in diameter, while others are 
small and delicate, with petals like fine lace- 
work. Smaller still, we sometimes pass a flo- 
tilla of infant leaves an inch in diameter. All 
these grow from the dark water,—and the 
blacker it is, the fairer their whiteness shows. 
But your eye follows the stem often vainly into 
those sombre depths, and vainly seeks to behold 
Sabrina fair, sitting with her twisted braids of 
lilies, beneath the glassy, cool, but not translucent 
wave. Do not start, when, in such an effort, 
only your own dreamy face looks back upon you 
beyond the gunwale of the reflected boat, and. 
you find that you float double—self and shadow. 
Let us rest our paddles, and look round us, 
while the idle motion sways our light skiff 
onward, now half embayed among the lily- 
pads, now lazily gliding over intervening gulfs. 
There is a great deal going on in these waters 
and their fringing woods and meadows. All 
the summer long the pond is bordered with 
successive walls of flowers. In early spring 
