r making a hasty meal at the house, I started, full of pleasing
anticipations, for the wood; for how pleasant a place it was to be in!
What a wild beauty and fragrance and melodiousness it possessed above
all forests, because of that mystery that drew me to it! And it was
mine, truly and absolutely--as much mine as any portion of earth's
surface could belong to any man--mine with all its products: the
precious woods and fruits and fragrant gums that would never be
trafficked away; its wild animals that man would never persecute; nor
would any jealous savage dispute my ownership or pretend that it was
part of his hunting-ground. As I crossed the savannah I played with this
fancy; but when I reached the ridgy eminence, to look down once more on
my new domain, the fancy changed to a feeling so keen that it pierced to
my heart and was like pain in its intensity, causing tears to rush to
my eyes. And caring not in that solitude to disguise my feelings from
myself, and from the wide heaven that looked down and saw me--for this
is the sweetest thing that solitude has for us, that we are free in it,
and no convention holds us--I dropped on my knees and kissed the stony
ground, then casting up my eyes, thanked the Author of my being for
the gift of that wild forest, those green mansions where I had found so
great a happiness!

Elated with this strain of feeling, I reached the wood not long after
noon; but no melodious voice gave me familiar and expected welcome; nor
did my invisible companion make itself heard at all on that day, or, at
all events, not in its usual bird-like warbling language. But on this
day I met with a curious little adventure and heard something very
extraordinary, very mysterious, which I could not avoid connecting in my
mind with the unseen warbler that so often followed me in my rambles.

It was an exceedingly bright day, without cloud, but windy, and finding
myself in a rather open part of the wood, near its border, where the
breeze could be felt, I sat down to rest on the lower part of a large
branch, which was half broken, but still remained attached to the trunk
of the tree, while resting its terminal twigs on the ground. Just before
me, where I sat, grew a low, wide-spreading plant, covered with broad,
round, polished leaves; and the roundness, stiffness, and perfectly
horizontal position of the upper leaves made them look like a collection
of small platforms or round table-tops placed nearly on a le