148 
RURAL HOURS. 
)y as they are thrown into relief by the light ; they become much 
bolder, also, from the washing of the soil, which accumulates 
above, and is carried away from the lower side of the trunk, 
leaving, often, a portion of the root bare m that direction. Of 
course, the older a wood and the larger its trees, the more clearly 
will this billowy character be marked. Tlie tracks of the cattle 
also make the formation more ridge-like, uniting one little knoll 
with another, for when feeding, they generally follow one another, 
their heads often turned in one direction, and upon a hill-side 
they naturally take a horizontal course, as the most convenient. 
Altogether, the billowy face of these rude hill-sides is quite strik- 
ing and peculiar, when seen in a favorable light. 
But there are softer touches also, telling the same story of 
recent cultivation. It frequently happens, that walking about 
oui' farms, among rich fields, smooth and well worked, one comes 
to a low bank, or some little nook, a strip of land never yet cul- 
tivated, though surrounded on all sides by ripening crops of east- 
ern grains and grasses. One always knows such places by the 
pretty native plants growing there. It was but the other day 
we paused to observe a spot of this kind in a fine meadow, near 
the village, neat and smooth, as though worked from the days of 
Adam. A path made by the workmen and cattle crosses the 
field, and one treads at every step upon plantain, that regular 
path-Aveed of the Old World ; following this track, avc come to a 
little runnel, Avhich is dry and grassy noAv, thougli doubtless at 
one time the bed of a considerable spring ; the banks are seA^eral 
feet high, and it is filled Avith native plants ; on one side stands 
a thom-trec, Avhose morning shadoAV falls upon grasses and clo- 
vers brought from beyond the seas, while in the afternoon, it lies 
