the
engineer.

In the grove the boys immediately scattered in search of adventure. All
but Bobby. He remained with the older people, wishing mightily to take
Celia with him; but suddenly afraid to approach her with the direct
request. So he contented himself with expressive gestures, which she,
close to her mother, chose to ignore.

Two of the men disappeared up the path, one carrying an empty pail. The
others went busily about collecting wood, building a fire, smoothing out
a place to spread the rugs which would serve as a table. All the women
fluttered about the lunch baskets examining the contents, discussing
them, finally distributing them in accordance with the mysterious system
considered proper in such matters. Bobby, left alone, without occupation
on the one hand, nor the desire for his companions' amusements on the
other, was then the only one at leisure to look about him, to observe
through the alders that fringed the bank the hide-and-seek glint of the
River; to gaze with wonder and a little awe on the canopy of waving
light green that to his childish sense of proportion seemed as far above
him as the skies themselves; to notice how the sunlight splashed through
the rifts as though it had been melted and poured down from above; to
feel the friendly warmth of summer air under trees; to savour the hot
springwood-smells that wandered here and there in the careless
irresponsibility of forest spirits off duty. This was Bobby's first
experience with woods; and his keenest perceptions were alive to them.
The tall trunks of trees rising from the graceful, fragile,
half-translucence of undergrowth; little round tunnels to a distant
delicate green; lights against shadows, and shadows against lights; the
wing-flashes of birds hidden and mysterious; and above all the
marvellous green transparence of all the shadows, which tinted the very
air itself, so that to the little boy it seemed he could bathe in it as
in a clear fountain--all these came to him at once. And each brought by
the hand another wonder for recognition, so that at last the picnic
party disappeared from his vision, the loud and laughing voices were
hushed from his ears. He stood there, lips apart, eyes wide, spirit
hushed, looking half upward. The light struck down across him.

The picnic party went about its business unaware of the wonderful thing
transacting in their very presence. Men do not grow as plants, so many
inches, so many months. The change