Helen's green island, and I will let you go free; but I will put
a scarlet collar about your neck before I let you go, that if any one
finds you, they may know that you are my squirrel. Were you ever in
the green forest, nurse? I hear papa talk about the 'Bush' and the
'Backwoods;' it must be very pleasant in the summer to live among the
green trees. Were you ever there?"
"Yes, dear lady; I did live in the woods when I was a child. I was born in
a little log-shanty, far, far away up the country, near a beautiful lake
called Rice Lake, among woods, and valleys, and hills covered with
flowers, and groves of pine, and white and black oaks."
"Stop, nurse, and tell me why they are called black and white; are the
flowers black and white?"
"No, my lady; it is because the wood of the one is darker than the
other, and the leaves of the black oak are dark and shining, while
those of the white oak are brighter and lighter. The black oak is a
beautiful tree. When I was a young girl, I used to like to climb the
sides of the steep valleys, and look down upon the tops of the oaks
that grew beneath, and to watch the wind lifting the boughs all glittering
in the moonlight; they looked like a sea of ruffled green water. It
is very solemn, Lady Mary, to be in the woods by night, and to hear
no sound but the cry of the great wood-owl, or the voice of the
whip-poor-will, calling to his fellow from the tamarack swamp, or,
may be, the timid bleating of a fawn that has lost its mother, or the
howl of a wolf.
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