CHAPTER VI. 
MINIATURE FERN CAVERNS. 
OR the lover of Nature there are few 
scenes which possess more attraction 
than the sequestered woodland dells 
where nought is heard but the musical tinkle of 
dropping water. In such dells the passing current 
of a babbling brook often holds soft and sweet 
communion with the tiny stones which may lie in 
its course, and with the plant forms which are 
gently swaying with the motion of the gurgling, 
splashing water ; whilst even bird and insect life 
is hushed as if in sj^mpathy with the quietness 
which almost seems to be made audible by the 
small sounds of the streamlet. 
Within such woodland nooks as these there are 
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