"Charlie has a splendid place to plant them on," said Ned, "right on a little flat by the mouth of the brook."
"Yes," said Walter, "but here are willows ten feet high. Mr. Bell carried no willows like these."
The peasant told him the reason that these grew so remarkably, was, that in the spring and fall the stream overflowed its banks, leaving a rich slime, which fertilized the soil, and the island, being surrounded by water, was moist throughout the year, and that the largest he was then cutting were used to hoop wine casks.
On the other side of the little isle was a rude bridge, upon which they crossed to the opposite shore. Following the course of the stream over heaps of gravel mixed with stones, brought down by streams from the mountains in the spring floods, they proceeded for miles through the most monotonous, dreary scenery imaginable; not a tree, bush, or scarcely a blade of grass to relieve the eye, Walter often repeating his favorite expression, "a God-forsaken country."
At length, as the sun attained its meridian, the face of the country became more diversified, breaking into gentle swells, and even hills of moderate elevation. Here they met with a little brook, which wound among the hills, and fell into the stream with a grateful murmur. Its banks were margined with a broad belt of green grass, and fringed with bushes and small trees, many of them evergreens.
"This is excellent water," said Ned, as he stooped and drank. "Suppose we eat here."
"I wouldn't; let us follow the stream into the valley I see yonder, eat, and rest there, and then go back."
They were led to a glen, the banks of which, broken into irregular, gentle slopes, were clothed with groves of large trees entirely clear of underbrush. Flinging themselves at the roots of a massive tree standing by itself at the extremity of a slight elevation, around which the brook wound, and where the sun shone warm and pleasantly, they began leisurely to eat, till, the demands of appetite appeased, they stretched themselves upon the grass.
"Wonder what kind of trees these are," said Ned; "guess they are walnuts."
"They look more like oaks," said Walter.