r heard nothing
about 'em; guess they got stove against the rocks."

We had still more than three miles to drive over a lonely part of the
road, where there was scarcely a house, and where the woods had been
cut off more or less, so there was nothing to be seen but the uneven
ground, which was not fit for even a pasture yet. But it was not
without a beauty of its own; for the little hills and hollows were
covered thick with brakes and ferns and bushes, and in the swamps the
cat-tails and all the rushes were growing in stiff and stately ranks,
so green and tall; while the birds flew up, or skimmed across them as
we went by. It was like a town of birds, there were so many. It is
strange how one is always coming upon families and neighbourhoods of
wild creatures in the unsettled country places; it is so much like
one's going on longer journeys about the world, and finding town after
town with its own interests, each so sufficient for itself.

We struck the edge of the farming-land again, after a while, and I saw
three great pines that had been born to good luck in this world, since
they had sprouted in good soil, and had been left to grow as fast as
they pleased. They lifted their heads proudly against the blue sky,
these rich trees, and I admired them as much as they could have
expected. They must have been a landmark for many miles to the
westward, for they grew on high land, and they could pity, from a
distance, any number of their poor relations who were just able to keep
body and soul together, and had grown up thin and hungry in crowded
woods. But, though their lower branches might snap and crackle at a
touch, their tops were brave and green, and they kept up appearances,
at any rate; these poorer pines.

Georgie pointed out his aunt's house to me, after a while. It was not
half so forlorn-looking as the others, for there were so many flowers
in bloom about it of the gayest kind, and a little yellow-and-white dog
came down the road to bark at us; but his manner was such that it
seemed like an unusually cordial welcome rather than an indignant
repulse. I noticed four jolly old apple-trees near by, which looked as
if they might be the last of a once flourishing orchard. They were
standing in a row, in exactly the same position, with their heads
thrown gayly back, as if they were dancing in an old-fashioned reel;
and, after the forward and back, one might expect them to turn partners
gallantly. I laughed al