Then all disappeared as suddenly as they had come.
Truly the student of Nature who betakes himself to lonely woods sees many wonders!
It was time now to lie back in the moss and enjoy the dolce far niente.
The sky was as blue as blue could be, all between the rifts of slowly-moving clouds. The whisper of the wind among the forest trees, and the murmur of the falling water, came like softest music to Roland's ears. Small wonder, therefore, that his eyes closed, and he was soon in the land of sweet forgetfulness.
But Peggy had a tiny book, from which she read passages to Brawn, who seemed all attention, but kept one eye on the ponies at the same time.
It was a copy of the "Song of Hiawatha", a poem which Peggy thought ineffably lovely. Hark to her sweet girl voice as she reads:
"These songs so wild and wayward,
These legends and traditions".
They appealed to her simple soul, for dearly did she love the haunts of Nature.
"Loved the sunshine of the meadow,
Loved the shadow of the forest,
Loved the wind among the branches,
The rushing of great rivers
Through their palisades of pine-trees."
She believed, too: