Robin Hood's Barn 



see it for its cap of bladed ferns. And just 

 beyond, I shall come upon the roof of a deep 

 cavern where through a gaping slice of rock, 

 I may gaze down into the dripping dark- 

 ness and make out, just faintly, the oven-bird on 

 her high shelf. Or if I wish, I may descend and 

 push through the blackness where the air is close 

 and dank and cold. But best of all I Uke the last 

 ascent, a great protruding shoulder where the 

 rocks run up, a mountain range in miniature, its 

 valley padded with green moss and freshened by 

 the fall of tiny streams. Here I must hand my- 

 self across diminutive ravines by tug at branch 

 and grasp of trunk, and scramble to each higher 

 ledge by the firm clutch of bush. 



At last I stand even with the tops of trees and 

 look down and out upon a surge of green. In no 

 other place have I had so completely the sense of 

 suspension, of being held among the boughs 

 and moved by wind. With each sway new 

 glimpses open and before the branches close 

 again, I catch the glimmer of a pool, the soft 

 vmfurling of an oak, the soar of one dark pine. 

 Or at my feet, where the parapet drops sheer, 

 [172] 



