gum cistus: duration is the only charm which it wants, and that
Ellen will give it. The weather is, to be sure, a little
threatening, but we are not people to mind the weather when we have
an object in view; we shall certainly go in quest of the
wood-sorrel, and will take May, provided we can escape May's
followers; for since the adventure of the lamb, Saladin has had an
affair with a gander, furious in defence of his goslings, in which
rencontre the gander came off conqueror; and as geese abound in the
wood to which we are going (called by the country people the Pinge),
and the victory may not always incline to the right side, I should
be very sorry to lead the Soldan to fight his battles over again.
We will take nobody but May.

So saying, we proceeded on our way through winding lanes, between
hedgerows tenderly green, till we reached the hatch-gate, with the
white cottage beside it embosomed in fruit-trees, which forms the
entrance to the Pinge, and in a moment the whole scene was before
our eyes.

'Is not this beautiful, Ellen?' The answer could hardly be other
than a glowing rapid 'Yes!'--A wood is generally a pretty place; but
this wood--Imagine a smaller forest, full of glades and sheep-walks,
surrounded by irregular cottages with their blooming orchards, a
clear stream winding about the brakes, and a road intersecting it,
and giving life and light to the picture; and you will have a faint
idea of the Pinge. Every step was opening a new point of view, a
fresh combination of glade and path and thicket. The accessories
too were changing every moment. Ducks, geese, pigs, and children,
giving way, as we advanced into the wood, to sheep and forest
ponies; and they again disappearing as we became more entangled in