Robin Hood's Barn 



way to my accustomed seat by the soft feel of 

 moss. Surely, too, the breeze that comes so 

 nimbly up this height, would carry with it much 

 of the quickness and the frolic of the birch trees 

 down beneath. I am glad, however, that I may 

 look out upon this briUiant clearing and see the 

 slim lithe trunks, the leaves so sensitive to wind 

 and light. 



Their memory is too gay to carry with me on 

 my backward j ourney through the woods. Under 

 this vault is no snug intimacy, no small loveliness; 

 rather an apathy of gloom, a loneliness too deep 

 to share. Between the colonnades there reigns 

 a twilight stillness and the stir in the high 

 branches is elusive and subdued. What plants 

 there are, have the fragility and reticence of long 

 seclusion. Set in the sim, the pipsissewa could 

 not send forth so delicate a fragrance or put 

 forth so shy a bloom. Something would the 

 mitchella lose if forced out in the open. It 

 must feel its way beneath a covering of leaves. 

 The Jacks and lady-slippers, too, have an appro- 

 priate sobriety in their dim luster and dress to 

 a somber mood. And in contrast to the frank 

 [170] 



