OF THE FOREST. 75

“ Last summer,” she replied, “ I was sent,
after an illness, for change of air to a cottage
in these woods, and then I learned to know
where beautiful flowers grow, and sweet birds
sing ; and I have not forgotten these places,”
she added, smiling, and tripping lightly be-
fore me.

But my little guide in her glee had forgot-
ten that, where she could pass with ease, I,
being much taller and larger, would find a
thousand obstacles. Accordingly, when she
told me that she had but a very little way to
go for the accomplishment of her object, I
bade her hasten forward, whilst I followed at
my leisure, and in consequence I soon lost
sight of her; but still pursuing the same wild
and tangled path into which she had led me,
I presently arrived at a more open part of
the forest, from whence I looked down upon a
dingle, in the bottom of which was a pool, and
on the side of the pool a sward which, from
its smooth deep green, intimated the moisture
of the place. A ruined cottage, of which the
gable-end and doorway alone remained entire,
peeped out from amid the trees and underwood.
The rays of the morning sun shot slantingly