“Just below this opening there was one of the most lordly looking oak trees that I ever saw.  It was taller than any of the other trees, and the trunk was so large, that when two of us children stood, one on each side, and reached our arms around it we could only touch the tips of each other’s fingers.  We had to hurry and get our ground pine, for the days were very short, and it grew dark fast There was plenty of it growing under the trees with another strange-looking evergreen, which ran close to the ground, in long vines with little soft narrow leaves, which felt like fur.  The boys called it bear’s grass.  I don’t think that was the right name, but I never knew any other.  After we had trimmed up our caps and bonnets with the early leaves of pine, and made ourselves tippets of the bear’s grass, we hastened back again; but the stars were in the sky, and the Gurnet lights were beaming brightly over the waters, long before we reached our homes.

“After this we went there a great many times, for we were fond of rambling in the woods, and almost everything which is usually found on hilltop or valley, seemed to grow there.  There were May flowers, violets and anemonies, in spring time; box, whortle, and black berries, in summer, and acorns and walnuts in autumn.

“One fourth of July, when soldiers were marching about the streets—­boys were firing crackers—­dogs barking, and every body seemed just ready to run crazy, Alfred, and Charlie, who was but a ‘wee bit’ of a boy, then, with sister Una and myself, determined to make our escape from this scene of confusion.  We took a little basket of provision, with a hatchet and a jug of water, and started for our favorite hollow.  Often, in the long winter evenings, we brothers and sisters would sit round the fire, and tell what we would do when we grew up to be men and women.  But there was one thing which we always agreed upon, and it was this:  that we would all live together, in a little cottage in the woods, where we could have plenty of room to move about in, and do just as we pleased.  Now we thought we had dreamed of this long enough and we determined to have a little of the reality; so, as soon as we reached the hollow, we began to build a bower with the branches which we cut from the trees with our hatchet.  We worked away very busily, for a long time, toiling and sweating, yet all the time feeling never so happy.  Oh, I do wish that all you children, and a great many more beside, could have been there with us, to see what a nice, pretty place it was, when it was finished.  Hiram of Tyre, in his stately palace of cedar, fir, and algum wood, could not have felt prouder or happier than we did, in our little sylvan bower.

“We spread a shawl on the ground, and laid our provisions upon it.  Here we sat and sung, and told stories, till we saw a great dark shadow coming down the hill-side; and what do you suppose it was, Thanny?” “Well I don’t know, unless it was a great black bear, coming down to get some of his grass for supper.”