The Chorus of the Forest 



to find our ^\'ay. and struggle to realize our con- 

 dition, Ave suddenly learn that our sunshine is gone 

 and life is gray monotony. 



The largest o])en s])ace we found underfoot 

 was on the side of a hill or incline facing east. The 

 trees api)eared quite as large and closely set. but Baneberry 

 for some reason the earth \\'as not covered with ,, '*"'', . 



Maidenhair 



shrubs and bushes, as was the rule. We had found 

 tA\o places where trees had been cut so long ago 

 that the decayed stumps crumbled at a touch, and 

 there Mas a third not as old. Close beside it I 

 found beauty to gladden the heart of musician, 

 poet, or ])ainter. It began with a M'hite baneberry 

 of marvelous grace. The plant was all of three 

 and a half feet in lieiglit, a smooth stem, upright 

 as the trees around it, and, like them, branching. 

 Its finely cut, lacy leaves, beautifully veined and 

 notched, grew in clusters of three. On a single 

 stem, borne high above the leaves, shone a big 

 bunch of china-M'hite l)erries, three dozen by count; 

 the stems red, each l)erry having a purj^le-black 

 eye-spot. Close by grew a near relative, ^ery sim- 

 ilar except that its l)erries were red. The flowers 

 of both are a pyramidal cluster made up of a mass 

 of small white blooms. 



Now just in front of the baneberry gre-w the 

 most graceful of all ferns, the i)lumy maidenhair, 

 and because of this wet season it had attained un- 

 usual size for our climate. On wirv two-foot stems 



