12/20 There was no other spot all over the Chace where they could be seen like this; you might walk for hours and not find one, yet here there were hundreds. In spring violets pushed up through them and blue-bells--sweet hope rising over grey decay. It was surrounded on three sides by trees and thickets; on the fourth an irregular margin of marshy grass extended. Floating leaves of weeds covered the surface of the water; these weeds had not been disturbed for years, and there was no check to their growth except their own profusion, for they choked each other. The pond had long ceased to supply fish for the table. |