hine on a lower twig, or on a white trunk, but
the floor of the vast arcades was almost entirely of the russet brown of
the fallen leaves, save where a fern or holly bush made a spot of green.
At the foot of the slope lay a stretch of pasture ground, some parts
covered by "lady-smocks, all silver white," with the course of the
little stream through the midst indicated by a perfect golden river of
shining kingcups interspersed with ferns. Beyond lay tracts of brown
heath and brilliant gorse and broom, which stretched for miles and miles
along the flats, while the dry ground was covered with holly brake, and
here and there woods of oak and beech made a sea of verdure, purpling in
the distance.

Cultivation was not attempted, but hardy little ponies, cows, goats,
sheep, and pigs were feeding, and picking their way about in the marshy
mead below, and a small garden of pot-herbs, inclosed by a strong fence
of timber, lay on the sunny side of a spacious rambling forest lodge,
only one story high, built of solid timber and roofed with shingle. It
was not without strong pretensions to beauty, as well as to
picturesqueness, for the posts of the door, the architecture of the deep
porch, the frames of the latticed windows, and the verge boards were all
richly carved in grotesque devices. Over the door was the royal shield,
between a pair of magnificent antlers, the spoils of a deer reported to
have been slain by King Edward the Fourth, as was denoted by the
"glorious sun of York" carved beneath the shield.

In the background among the trees were ranges of stables and kennels,
and on the grass-plat in front of the windows was a row of beehives. A
tame doe lay on the little green sward, not far from a large rough deer-
hound, both close friends who could be trusted at large. There was a
mournful dispirited look about the hound, evidently an aged animal, for
the once black muzzle was touched with grey, and there was a film over
one of the keen beautiful eyes, which opened eagerly as he pricked his
ears and lifted his head at the rattle of the door latch. Then, as two
boys came out, he rose, and with a slowly waving tail, and a wistful
appealing air, came and laid his head against one of the pair who had
appeared in the pont. They were lads of fourteen and fifteen, clad in
suits of new mourning, with the short belted doublet, puffed hose, small
ruffs and little round caps of early Tudor times. They had dark eyes
and hair, and