TO YOU
who least need reminding

that before this interval of the South Branch under black mountains, there was another interval, the Upper at Plymouth, where we walked in spring beyond the covered bridge; but that the first interval of all was the old farm, our brook interval, so called by the man we had it from in sale.

CONTENTS

PAGE

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN[9]
CHRISTMAS TREES[11]
AN OLD MAN’S WINTER NIGHT[14]
A PATCH OF OLD SNOW[15]
IN THE HOME STRETCH[16]
THE TELEPHONE[24]
MEETING AND PASSING[25]
HYLA BROOK[26]
THE OVEN BIRD[27]
BOND AND FREE[28]
BIRCHES[29]
PEA BRUSH[31]
PUTTING IN THE SEED[32]
A TIME TO TALK[33]
THE COW IN APPLE TIME[34]
AN ENCOUNTER[35]
RANGE-FINDING[36]
THE HILL WIFE[37]
ILONELINESS––HER WORD[37]
IIHOUSE FEAR[37]
IIITHE SMILE––HER WORD[38]
IVTHE OFT-REPEATED DREAM[38]
VTHE IMPULSE[39]
THE BONFIRE[41]
A GIRL’S GARDEN[45]
THE EXPOSED NEST[48]
“OUT, OUT––”[50]
BROWN’S DESCENT OR THE WILLY-NILLY SLIDE[52]
THE GUM-GATHERER[56]
THE LINE-GANG[58]
THE VANISHING RED[59]
SNOW[61]
THE SOUND OF THE TREES[75]

9

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–– I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.