JULY 149 



a watercourse, confident that it would lead 

 us sooner or later to human habitations. 

 Our luncheon was eaten, we were foot-sore, 

 and my camera was heavy. Altogether 

 our spirits were down. The undergrowth 

 was so thick that our quickest progress was 

 made by wading down the bed of the stream. 

 A sudden turn of the rivulet brought us face 

 to face with a clump of birches. Their 

 pure white trunks, with the paper hanging 

 in delicate shreds, stood out clear and sharp 

 against the dark shadows of the under- 

 growth behind them. About their base, 

 on the top of the shelving bank, stood a 

 magnificent cluster of maidenhair ferns, 

 their dainty fronds scarcely swaying in the 

 summer air. Through it all came the 

 dominant note of the cardinal flower. 

 Involuntarily we stopped and gazed; and 

 a brighter mood and a quicker step' led 

 us on, and made it perhaps # a little 

 easier to bear when, on arriving at a 

 house half a mile farther on, we found 

 we had gone down the wrong side of the 

 mountain. 



