PINES. 
187 
Our little fruit-venders are beginning to bring whortleberries to 
market ; tliey are very plenty on our hills, being common in the 
woods, and abundant in half-cleared lands. This little shrub, in- 
cluding all its numerous varieties, spreads over a broad extent of 
country, growing alike within the forest, in waste lands, upon hills 
and in swamps ; it is well known that on this Western Continent 
it fills the place held in Europe by the heath. Though much less 
showy than the golden broom or the purple heather, the Euro- 
pean plants of waste grounds, the whortleberry has the higher 
merit of producing an edible fruit, which we still find very pleas- 
ant, though now supplied with so many luxuries of the kind by 
horticulture. To the poor Indians the whortleberries must have 
been very precious, yielding fruit for their benefit during three 
months of the year, more or less. 
The northern lights are brilliant this evening ; for some months 
they have been less frequent than usual. We have them, at in- 
tervals, during all seasons. 
Monday, 28c?. — Just at the point where the village street be- 
comes a road and turns to climb the hill-side, there stands a group 
of pines, a remnant of the old forest. There are many trees like 
these among the woods; far and near such maybe seen rising 
from the hills, now tossing their arms in the stormy winds, now 
drawn in still and dark relief against the glowing evening sky. 
Their gaunt, upright forms standing about the hill-tops, and the 
ragged gray stumps of those which have fallen, dotting the 
smooth fields, make up the sterner touches in a scene whose gen- 
eral aspect is smiling. But although these old trees are common 
upon the wooded heights, yet the group on the skirts of the vil- 
lage stands alone among the fields of the valley; their nearer 
