once to burrow;
tiny emerald ones chose softer places up among the wreckage of
wrenched roots; wasps came and chopped out bits for the walls and
partitions of their cells; spiders hung their cobwebs between ratlines
of rootlets; and hummingbirds promptly followed and plucked them from
their silken nets, and then took the nets to bind their own tiny
air-castles. Finally, other interests intervened, and like Jennie and
Robert, I gradually forgot the tree that fell without an echo.

In the jungle no action or organism is separate, or quite apart, and
this thing which came to the three of us suddenly at midnight led by
devious means to another magic phase of the shore.

A little to the south along my beach is the Edge of the World. At
least, it looks very much as I have always imagined that place must
look, and I have never been beyond it; so that, after listening to
many arguments in courts of law, and hearing the reasoning of
bolsheviki, teetotalers, and pacifists, I feel that I am quite
reasonable as human beings go. And best of all, it hurts no one, and
annoys only a few of my scientific friends, who feel that one cannot
indulge in such ideas at the wonderful hour of twilight, and yet at
eight o'clock the following morning describe with impeccable accuracy
the bronchial semi-rings, and the intricate mosaic of cartilage which
characterizes and supports the _membranis tympaniformis_ of _Attila
thamnophiloides_; a dogma which halves life and its interests.

The Edge of the World has always meant a place where usual things are
different; and my southern stretch of beach was that, because of
roots. Whenever in digging I have come across a root and seen its
living flesh, perhaps pink or rose or pale green, so far underground,
I have desired to know roots better; and now I found my opportunity. I
walked along the proper trail, through right and usual trees, with
reasonable foliage and normal trunks, and suddenly I stepped down over
the Edge. Overhead and all around there was still the foliage. It shut
out the sun except for greenish, moderated spots and beams. The
branches dipped low in front over the water, shutting out the sky
except along the tops of the cross-river jungle. Thus a great
green-roofed chamber was formed; and here, between jungle and the
water-level of the world, was the Kingdom of the Roots.

Great trees had in their youth fallen far forward, undermined by the
water, then slowly taken a new reach upward