the sharp report of a rifle rung through the forest, or the hungry
yelping of some trailing hound startled his harmless slumber, might
you see at the mouth of his burrow the quivering lip and great timid
eyes.

Along the margin of the creek, shrunken now away from the blue and
gray and yellowish stones that made its cool pavement, and projected
in thick layers from the shelving banks, the white columns of
gigantic sycamores leaped earthward, their bases driven, as it
seemed, deep into the ground--all their convolutions of roots buried
out, of view. Dropping into the stagnant waters below, came one by
one the broad, rose-tinted leaves, breaking the shadows of the
silver limbs.

Ruffling and widening to the edges of the pools went the circles, as
the pale, yellow walnuts plashed into their midst; for here, too,
grew the parent trees, their black bark cut and jagged and broken
into rough diamond work.

That beautiful season was come when

"Rustic girls in hoods
Go gleaning through the woods."

Two days after this, we said, my dear mate and I, we shall have a
holiday, and from sunrise till sunset, with our laps full of ripe
nuts and orchard fruits, we shall make pleasant pastime.

Rosalie, for so I may call her, was older than I, with a face of
beauty and a spirit that never flagged. But to-day there was