INDIAN SPRING 



109 



just breaking through the surface as if to say like 

 old Brer Terrapin, "Here I come a-bulgin'!" At 

 a short distance another and more mature plant 

 stood high on its stalk, its wide umbrella spread 

 temptingly before us, proclaiming- its kinship to 

 many of the edible sorts. When everybody had 

 learned that the cup at the root should be avoided 

 in all mushrooms, we considered the desirability of 

 uprooting these that they might not replenish the 

 earth with their spores. 



We crossed another stream whose bed was 

 strewn with fallen tree trunks and large boulders. 

 Evidently here was a brook which had been 

 mighty in its day. But the day was past and only 

 the naked prongs of uprooted trees on its border 

 told of its former power. The way became more 

 difficult as we progressed. The steeps grew steeper 

 and the fallen trees across 

 the path were harder to 

 clamber over. Many of 

 these had fallen long ago 

 and were fast crumbling to 

 pieces. The mosses and 

 lichens, ferns, the fungi, 

 and even young trees of 

 various kinds, crowded over 

 the fallen one and helped 

 convert its huge bulk into 

 earth mold or new wood 

 fiber. Great shelves of the 

 common wood fungus had pushed out one above 

 another. Slimy, gliding masses of another fungus 



A SALAMANDER 



