LUKE, THE RABBIT CONTRACTOR: THE BROOK-PATH The waggon-track leading to the Upper Woods almost always presented something of interest, and often of beauty.

The solitude of the place seemed to have attracted flowers and ferns as well as wild animals and birds.

For though flowers have no power of motion, yet seeds have a negative choice and lie dormant where they do not find a kindly welcome.
But those carried hither by the birds or winds took root and flourished, secure from the rude ploughshare or the sharp scythe.
The slow rumble of waggon-wheels seldom disturbed the dreamy silence, or interrupted the song of the birds; so seldom that large docks and thistles grew calmly beside the ruts untouched by hoofs.

From the thick hedges on either side trailing brambles and briars stretched far out, and here and there was a fallen branch, broken off by the winds, whose leaves had turned brown and withered while all else was green.

Round sarsen stones had been laid down in the marshy places to form a firm road, but the turf had long since covered most of them.