days were very short, and it grew dark fast There was plenty of it
growing under the trees with another strange-looking evergreen, which
ran close to the ground, in long vines with little soft narrow leaves,
which felt like fur. The boys called it bear's grass. I don't think
that was the right name, but I never knew any other. After we had
trimmed up our caps and bonnets with the early leaves of pine, and made
ourselves tippets of the bear's grass, we hastened back again; but the
stars were in the sky, and the Gurnet lights were beaming brightly over
the waters, long before we reached our homes.

"After this we went there a great many times, for we were fond of
rambling in the woods, and almost everything which is usually found on
hilltop or valley, seemed to grow there. There were May flowers, violets
and anemonies, in spring time; box, whortle, and black berries, in
summer, and acorns and walnuts in autumn.

"One fourth of July, when soldiers were marching about the streets--boys
were firing crackers--dogs barking, and every body seemed just ready to
run crazy, Alfred, and Charlie, who was but a 'wee bit' of a boy, then,
with sister Una and myself, determined to make our escape from this
scene of confusion. We took a little basket of provision, with a hatchet
and a jug of water, and started for our favorite hollow. Often, in the
long winter evenings, we brothers and sisters would sit round the fire,
and tell what we would do when we grew up to be men and women. But there
was one thing which we always agreed upon, and it was this: that we
would all live together, in a little cottage in the woods, where we
could have plenty of room to move about in, and do just as we pleased.
Now we thought we had dreamed of this long enough and we determined to
have a little of the reality; so, as soon as we reached the hollow, we
began to build a bower with the branches which we cut from the trees
with our hatchet. We worked away very busily, for a long time, toiling
and sweating, yet all the time feeling never so happy. Oh, I do wish
that all you children, and a great many more beside, could have been
there with us, to see what a nice, pretty place it was, when it was
finished. Hiram of Tyre, in his stately palace of cedar, fir, and algum
wood, could not have felt prouder or happier than we did, in our little
sylvan bower.

"We spread a shawl on the ground, and laid our provisions upon it. Here
we sat and sung, and told stories,