“We’ll have to break our way into this jungle of shoulder-high weeds and briars, if we expect to find the source of the creek,” remarked Mrs. James, pinning her short skirt tightly about her and beginning to bend down the weedy stems that obstructed the way.
Norma followed closely in her tracks and after a slow progress through the stubborn undergrowth, the two came to a spot almost opposite the house, but about three hundred yards away from it.
“Why, the creek turns sharply towards the house here, Norma, but the jungle spreads further afield,” said Mrs. James, as she turned to the left to follow the stream.
They now reached a point in the course of the creek that was not a hundred feet away from the front corner of the house, but the reeds and briars had always hidden the small stream winding its way through the jungle. Mrs. James was elated at discovering a natural supply of water so near the front lawns and stepped out to proceed, when suddenly her foot sank in a soft bog.
“Oh!” exclaimed she, quickly pulling her foot out and stepping back. Norma was just about to advance, but she, too, jumped back to avoid a collision.
“What is it—a water snake?” called Norma anxiously.
“No, a mire. I went right down in a marsh. But it is not possible to determine how large an area the mire covers, because the undergrowth is so dense. Let’s go back and try to enter the place from the front-lawn side.”
So the two hastened back the way they had come, and tried to continue their investigations from the front lawn side of the briar patch.
The two stood on a slight elevation of ground at the front corner of the lawn, where stood a group of giant pines which had done service as silent sentinels for more than a century. They made one of the artistic scenic effects on the farm, with their wide-spreading limbs tipped with flat fans of aromatic green shading the lawn and road.
“From this slight knoll, the ground slopes naturally to this depression that is now covered with that tangled undergrowth,” said Mrs. James, pointing generally at the area under discussion. “You can see that the ground rises very gradually from the depression until it is on a level with the main road again. From the spot where I went down in the marsh, over to the property line of our farm, is more than a hundred yards across, and it is all such a jungle that no one ever bothered to investigate the possibilities of doing anything with it. At least, that is what I think, because this place has been uncultivated for years, as one can see.”