at was laced together in a general network of boughs and leaves, and
grew so high as to overtop our heads. Where the house stands, four or
five great old oaks and chestnuts had to be cut away to let it in; and
now it stands on the bank of the river, the edges of which are still
overhung with old forest-trees, chestnuts and oaks, which look at
themselves in the glassy stream.

A little knoll near the house was chosen for a garden-spot; a dense,
dark mass of trees above, of bushes in mid-air, and of all sorts of
ferns and wild-flowers and creeping vines on the ground. All these had
to be cleared out, and a dozen great trees cut down and dragged off to a
neighboring saw-mill, there to be transformed into boards to finish off
our house. Then, fetching a great machine, such as might be used to pull
a giant's teeth, with ropes, pulleys, oxen and men, and might and main,
we pulled out the stumps, with their great prongs and their network of
roots and fibres; and then, alas! we had to begin with all the pretty
wild, lovely bushes, and the checkerberries and ferns and wild
blackberries and huckleberry-bushes, and dig them up remorselessly, that
we might plant our corn and squashes. And so we got a house and a garden
right out of the heart of our piece of wild wood, about a mile from the
city of H----.

Well, then, people said it was a lonely place, and far from
neighbors,--by which they meant that it was a good way for them to come
to see us. But we soon found that whoever goes into the woods to live
finds neighbors of a new kind, and some to whom it is rather hard to
become accustomed.

For instance, on a fine day early in April, as we were crossing over to
superintend the building of our house, we were startled by a striped
snake, with his little bright eyes, raising himself to look at us, and
putting out his red, forked tongue. Now there is no more harm in these
little garden-snakes than there is in a robin or a squirrel; they are
poor little, peaceable, timid creatures, which could not do any harm if
they would; but the prejudices of society are so strong against them,
that one does not like to cultivate too much intimacy with them. So we
tried to turn out of our path into a tangle of bushes; and there,
instead of one, we found four snakes. We turned on the other side, and
there were two more. In short, everywhere we looked, the dry leaves were
rustling and coiling with them; and we were in despair. In vain we said
that t