with the happy little ones who
seemed so full of joy. I watched them for a time and went on across
the mountains; but I have long believed in fairies, so the next day I
went back to see this fairyland and found the dear little aspens still
shaking their golden leaves, while the old pine stood still in the
sunlight.

Along the streams, between the altitudes of sixty-five hundred and
eighty-five hundred feet, one finds the Colorado blue or silver
spruce. This tree grows in twos or threes, occasionally forming a
small grove. Usually it is found growing near a river or brook,
standing closely to a golden-lichened crag, in surroundings which
emphasize its beauty of form and color. With its fluffy silver-tipped
robe and its garlands of cones it is the handsomest tree on the
Rockies. It is the queen of these wild gardens. Beginning at the
altitude where the silver spruce ceases is the beautiful balsam fir
(_Abies lasiocarpa_). The balsam fir is generally found in company
with the alders or the silver spruce near a brook. It is strikingly
symmetrical and often forms a perfect slender cone. The balsam fir and
the silver spruce are the evergreen poems of the wild. They get into
one's heart like the hollyhock. Several years ago the school-children
of Colorado selected by vote a State flower and a State tree. Although
more than fifty flowers received votes, two thirds of all the votes
went to the Rocky Mountain columbine. When it came to selecting a
tree, every vote was cast for the silver spruce.

Edwinia, with its attractive waxy white flowers, and potentilla, with
bloom of gold, are shrubs which lend a charm to much of the
mountain-section. Black birch and alder trim many of the streams,
and the mountain maple is thinly scattered from the foothills to nine
thousand feet altitude. Wild roses are frequently found near the
maple, and gooseberry bushes fringe many a brook. Huckleberries
flourish on the timbered slopes, and kinnikinick gladdens many a
gravelly stretch or slope.

[Illustration: A GROVE OF SILVER SPRUCE]

Between the altitudes of eight thousand and ten thousand feet there
are extensive forests of the indomitable lodge-pole pine. This borders
even more extensive forests of Engelmann spruce. Lodge-pole touches
timber-line in a few places, and Engelmann spruce climbs up to it in
every canon or moist depression. Along with these, at timber-line, are
_flexilis_ pine, balsam fir, arctic willow, dwarf black birch, and th