20 SUMMER IN A BOG. 



innovations in competition, it can be truly said 

 that this highway is one of our best inheritances 

 from the fathers. Like all things true and 

 well-wrought, it will never cease to be a bless- 

 ing — ^if kept in repair. 



All the while that my thoughts have been 

 wool-gathering my hands have not been idle. 

 A grass of the early spring, now withering on 

 its bank, proves- to be vanilla grass, or Holy 

 Grass. In Iceland it is used to scent rooms 

 and clothing. In Northern Europe this sweet- 

 scented grass is spread before the church door. 

 Does not that remind you of the ancient times, 

 when the earthen floors of dwellings and even 

 castles were covered with rushes, fresh every 

 day? Ah! bogs were very plentiful in those 

 days, before the invention of under-draining, 

 to make the supply of rushes hold out. 



Here at my side, in the thick mire of this 

 sluggish stream, the greater bulrush is ready 

 for the work, if so please you. The spike-rush 

 and several varieties of sedge beautify the 

 waste. 



But bogs are growing fewer yearly in Mad- 

 ison Coimty, owing to the network of tiling in 

 the low fields and meadows. That way lies 

 health and wealth. 



The tramp of hoofs on the hard road stops, 

 and a familiar voice calls to me^the rubber- 



