other places parted and opened for spaces of mossy turf, where the too shallow soil would not nourish them. Here, there was a wild wilderness of natural beauty. Now and then a lovely low-growing white pine spreading abroad its bluish-green branches; in other parts scraggy, tall-shooting specimens of the yellow variety; at the hill-foot and on the rocky hillside golden hickories and brown oaks and flaunting maples. The turf was dry and warm, being in fact half moss; the openings and glades allured the party from one sweet resting spot into another. "We may as well stop here," said Flora at last. "We might go round and round all day, it is all so pretty. We must stop somewhere, if we are to have any reading." "Let us go over yonder to the edge of the bank," said Meredith, "where we can have a view of the river." At the edge of the bank the cedars began to occupy the ground, and indeed hindered the view, but a few strokes of Fairbairn's axe set that right, and the party sat down in the shade of some taller trees with a lookout over the pretty conical cedars (not columnar here) down to the water, and across to the green and gold promontory which on the other side of the river closed the view. The girls got out their work. Maggie sat down panting after a race with Rob Roy. Meredith lounged upon the mossy bank and looked lazy. Presently the strokes of a couple of axes began to break the silence. One, two; one, two; one, two---- "It only wanted that!" he exclaimed. "What!" said Esther. "That chopping. That ring of the axes. It completes the charm. This is elysium!" "We have got to make our bonfire!" said Maggie starting. "Wait,--not yet; they have not cut down a single tree yet. Hark! there it goes, crashing down. They have got to trim it yet, Maggie, before there will be anything to burn." "And they must cut and trim a good many trees before there will be enough to begin," said Esther. "It is more fun to have plenty to pile on at once." "Then we shall wait a good while for our dinner," said Maggie. "Are you hungry? It is only half-past eleven." "No, I am not hungry yet, but a bonfire takes a good while, you know, and I want to get to the reading." "Come! we might read an hour," said Meredith rousing himself up. "No, Ditto, that would bring it to half-past twelve, and that would never do." "Well, then, I will go trim, and we'll have the bonfire going in a few minutes. Where will you have it?"