y8 INTRODUCTION
abundance, and I, with Mr. Randall's help, collected quite a bouquet. I had violets, anemones, houstonias, cowslips, and ever so many others, together with the blossoms of trees, such as red maple, aronia \sic\ Sec. I did not know that so many flowers were out so early. We crossed the brook and began the ascent of Spindle Hill, a most un- poetical name for a beautiful place. We were about half way up when, behind an angle of a stone wall, Mr. Randall saw something that induced the exclamation, ' Look quick, Frank, there's a skunk ! ' I turned my head, and caught a glimpse of the creature as it darted out of sight. We kept ascending till we reached the top, the prospect grow- ing more beautiful as we advanced, when it was perfectly charming. The adjacent country was spread out like a panorama, and on every side we could see silvery streams, winding through green fields and shaded by trees ; white houses shining, if I may so express myself, among them, and the thick woods beyond ; these formed a scene, at least to me, of almost unparalleled beauty. We could see, Mr. Randall said, fifty towns, perhaps seventy-five. In point of beauty, I think that this most charming prospect was superior to that from the Wilder estate in Bolton, which I afterwards saw. We sat down on a stone, and I gazed in silence on the scene below. The Elsebeth [Assabet] Brook, which we had just left, was coursing in serpentine mazes through green fields, now hid by trees, then appearing beyond — oh, I cannot describe my feel- ings. It was not so magnificent, so splendid, as that at Bolton, but its quiet beauty, its gentle aspect, quite won my heart. It seemed to be among landscapes like the violet among flowers, so enchanting by its fragrance that we forget the stately tulip. When we had looked at it as much as we liked, we started to come home. We came
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