The forest twines closer its cool verdant gloom;
Above, like an arbor, the green branches meet,
And the moss springs elastic, yet soft, to our feet.
The shade is so dense, the gray rabbit scarce fears
To show, o’er the fern clump, his long peering ears,
And the saucy red-squirrel, erect on his spray,
Were unseen, if his chatter-tongue did not betray;
A scatter of viands, with plunge in the brake,
As one stumbles o’er a coil’d root like a snake,
There’s a laugh from the group, and a lofty perch’d crow