"
Ruth and David seized the basket, and escaped--laughing and
running--carrying it between them.
The spot chosen for this Indian Summer dance in the forest was near
Cedar House. It was one of the natural open spaces, of which there were
many in the wilderness, and it overlooked the river. High walls of thick
green leaves enfolded it upon three sides, and it had a broad level
floor of greener sward. It was sun-lit when the shadowed woods were
dark. In the spring the greensward was gay with wild flowers; for it was
in these open spaces between the trees that Nature displayed her most
brilliant floral treasures which would not bloom in the shade. In the
fall the leafy walls were more brilliant than the flowery sward, and
they now rose toward the azure dome, gorgeously hung with bronzed and
golden vines, blossoming here and there with vivid scarlet leaves. Below
ran a dazzling border of shrubs--the sumac, which does not wait for the
coming of the frost king to put on its royal livery; the sassafras
already gleaming with touches of fire; the wild grape as red as the
reddest wine, and rioting over all the rich green; the bright wahoo with
its graceful clusters of flame-colored berries overrunning its soberer
neighbors; the hazel, the pawpaw, the dog-wood, the red-bud, the
spice-wood, the sweet-strife, the angelica.
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