"Please, sir, trees, sir." "And what else?" "Toadstools, sir." This after a pause. The Professor was not quite sure about the toadstools, but on referring to the text he found that the boy was right; toadstools had been mentioned. "Quite right," admitted the Professor, "toadstools grew there. And what else? What do you find underneath trees in a wood?" "Please, sir, earth, sir." "No; no; what grows in a wood besides trees?" "Oh, please, sir, bushes, sir." "Bushes; very good. Now we are getting on. In this wood there were trees and bushes. And what else?" He pointed to a small boy near the bottom, who having decided that the wood was too far off to be of any annoyance to him, individually, was occupying his leisure playing noughts and crosses against himself. Vexed and bewildered, but feeling it necessary to add something to the inventory, he hazarded blackberries. This was a mistake; the poet had not mentioned blackberries. "Of course, Klobstock would think of something to eat," commented the Professor, who prided himself on his ready wit. This raised a laugh against Klobstock, and pleased the Professor. "You," continued he, pointing to a boy in the middle; "what else was there in this wood besides trees and bushes?" "Please, sir, there was a torrent there." "Quite right; and what did the torrent do?" "Please, sir, it gurgled." "No; no. Streams gurgle, torrents--?" "Roar, sir." "It roared. And what made it roar?" This was a poser. One boy--he was not our prize intellect, I admit--suggested the girl. To help us the Professor put his question in another form: "When did it roar?" Our third boy, again coming to the rescue, explained that it roared when it fell down among the rocks. I think some of us had a vague idea that it must have been a cowardly torrent to make such a noise about a little thing like this; a pluckier torrent, we felt, would have got up and gone on, saying nothing about it. A torrent that roared every time it fell upon a rock we deemed a poor spirited torrent; but the Professor seemed quite content with it. "And what lived in this wood beside the girl?" was the next question. "Please, sir, birds, sir." "Yes, birds lived in this wood. What else?" Birds seemed to have exhausted our ideas. "Come," said the Professor, "what are those animals with tails, that run up trees?" We thought for a while, then one of us suggested cats. This was an error; the poet had said nothing about cats; squirrels was what the Professor was trying to get. I do not recall much more about this wood in detail. I only recollect that the sky was introduced into it. In places where there occurred an opening among the trees you could by looking up see the sky above you; very often there were clouds in this sky, and occasionally, if I remember rightly, the girl got wet.