gathered in clefts and hollows
there was now no wood-sorrel. The little patches of soil in crevices and
between stones were without ferns, without star-flowers, without all the
green and red and light and soft and soothing things which usually
clothe the forest ground.

It was as if a bright light flashed upon the mountain when all the
parish children covered it. Here again was something sweet and delicate;
something fresh and rosy; something young and growing. Perhaps these
children would bring to the poor abandoned forest a little new life.

When the children had rested and eaten their luncheon, they seized hoes
and spades and began to work. The foresters showed them what to do. They
set out shrub after shrub on every clear spot of earth they could find.

As they worked, they talked quite knowingly among themselves of how the
little shrubs they were planting would bind the soil so that it could
not get away, and of how new soil would form under the trees. By and by
seeds would drop, and in a few years they would be picking both
strawberries and raspberries where now there were only bare rocks. The
little shrubs which they were planting would gradually become tall
trees. Perhaps big houses and great splendid ships would be built from
them!

If the children had not come here and planted while there was still a
little soil in the clefts, all the earth would have been carried away by
wind and water, and the mountain could never more have been clothed in
green.

"It was well that we came," said the children. "We were just in the nick
of time!" They felt very important.

While they were working on the mountain, their parents were at home. By
and by they began to wonder how the children were getting along. Of
course it was only a joke about their planting a forest, but it might be
amusing to see what they were trying to do.

So presently both fathers and mothers were on their way to the forest.
When they came to the outlying stock farms they met some of their
neighbours.

"Are you going to the fire-swept mountain?" they asked.

"That's where we're bound for."

"To have a look at the children?"

"Yes, to see what they're up to."

"It's only play, of course."

"It isn't likely that there will be many forest trees planted by the
youngsters. We have brought the coffee pot along so that we can have
something warm to drink, since we must stay there all day with only
lunch-basket provisions."

So the parents of