CHAPTER II.

RURAL PLEASURES.

The church was situated in the very shadow of a wood that skirts the pretty village of M----, in northern Vermont. When the two boys reached it, they found quite an assemblage of their school-fellows awaiting the arrival of the sacristan, who soon appeared, and sent some into the woods with axes and hatchets to cut the evergreens, dispatched others with pails for water, and kept George and Henry to help him in the church.

They had just finished arranging all in order and dusting the sanctuary, when their mothers and sisters arrived with the flowers, which they took to a little room adjoining the sacristy, where the pails of water were left. Very soon some of the boys came in with the evergreen trees; the beautiful trailing pines of several varieties, and graceful feathery foliage of brilliant green, together with a profusion of other wild-wood treasures, which they had collected. The village girls also came bringing wild flowers and other contributions for the decoration.

Young Catholics in country places need not be told how pleasantly the time passed with this company in the varied occupations of tying wreaths, arranging bouquets in the vases, putting up the festooned garlands, winding the pillars, and executing other devices, with which they are already so familiar as to need no information. But it is certain that the young people of cities, losing all these true and natural enjoyments, as well as the developments of taste and ingenuity to which they lead, lose a valuable aid to devotion. They who cannot participate in the adornment of the material temple for the worship of God, by bringing the simple offerings of the woodlands and the valleys for its embellishment, lose a very important incentive to the due preparation of the spiritual temple for his reception.

Before the arrival of the priest, the work of decoration was completed, and each pious heart was gladdened to see how beautiful the altar looked, smiling through a profusion of flowers, whose fragrance hovered around the tabernacle of the Lord like a breath from paradise, and embowered in wreaths prepared from the "glory of Libanus," together with tributes from "the fir-tree, the box-tree, and the pine," which youthful hands had collected to "beautify the place of his sanctuary, and to make the place of his feet glorious."

When all was finished, the cheerful crowd quietly sought their places in the church, to prepare for the holy sacrament of reconciliation.

While these busy performances were in progress, George had looked in vain among the young people assembled to discover two lads who were near his own age, and in whom he felt a special interest--Michael Hennessy and Dennis Sullivan. He feared they had been drawn away into the expedition of their school-mates mentioned by Frank Blair.

On the following morning, the priest announced during the mass that there would be no vespers that afternoon, as he was going to visit another parish. After mass, Mr. Wingate and Mr. Howe told George and Henry that they intended taking the two families out to Mr. Howe's farm, a few miles distant, that afternoon, and that they might invite some of their young friends to accompany them. They were delighted; for there was nothing they enjoyed so much as their occasional visits to the farm. So they sought among the crowd at the church door their friends Mike and Dennis; but they were not to be found. They invited Patrick Casey, and a few other boys, to come to their homes after dinner and join the excursion.

Soon after dinner the large family carriages were brought up, and such a bustle ensued, stowing away in the vehicles baskets filled with buttered biscuits, cold ham and tongue, sandwiches, cakes, and sundry other delicacies, with a package of table-cloths and napkins, as betokened a grand supper in the woods, which was of all things the most delightful to the boys.

The party were soon comfortably packed into the capacious carriages, and set off in high glee. When they arrived at the farm-house, Mrs. Howe made arrangements for a plentiful supply of milk, fresh strawberries and cream, and other things, to be taken to a certain place in the woods at a time appointed, and the merry company set out in quest of the quiet nooks and shady dells of the forest.

There was no end to the pleasant incidents that here met our young people at every turn. They had scarcely entered the shadowy domain, when a partridge whirred up from their very feet into a tree over their heads, and they soon discovered she had left a brood of her young below. Such a scramble as took place in pursuit of the shy little beauties!--the girls holding their aprons, that the captives might be deposited in them as fast as caught. It was funny to see how the wise little creatures would hide under every chip, bit of bark, or dead leaf, and, when these were lifted, how still they would lie, as if lifeless--so near the color of the ground that it was hard to distinguish them--and allow themselves to be taken.

After sufficiently admiring their tiny prisoners, they set them at liberty, and resumed their exploration of the forest. Very soon one of them came across a night-hawk's nest on the ground, and called all the party to admire it, with its treasure of curious brown eggs. Then they discovered a blue-bird's nest built with rare skill in a hole in the trunk of a tree. And now a splendid gray squirrel attracted their attention; he ran up a tree and out to the end of a limb, where he sat calmly defying all their efforts to frighten or knock him off. A discussion upon squirrels and their habits ensued, and "Grandma" Howe told them she once saw a large gray squirrel by a small sheet of water, where a dashing mountain brook had subsided into a quiet basin, which he wanted to cross. He stood on the margin for some time, as if considering the matter--turning himself to ascertain the direction of the wind, which happened to be favorable--then, seizing a chip that lay near him, threw it into the water, and springing aboard of his little craft, raised his tail to catch the wind, and sailed across swiftly and safely. When he gained the other shore, he jumped off, and did not even have the politeness to pull his boat ashore after him.

All this time Mr. Squirrel sat eying his guests of "the green-wood" very composedly, occasionally stamping his little foot with pretty pettishness, and at length fell to nibbling a last year's beech-nut which he had carried up to his perch for a lunch with so much coolness that his young observers were quite charmed, and determined to leave him to munch his nut in peace. They now sought a bright little brook that danced gayly over shining pebbles near by, and the murmur of whose waters, mingling with the rustle of leaves stirred by the breath of June, whispered in sweet harmony the song of the woods. They soon reached a fringe of graceful willows marking its course, and dipping their pendent limbs to kiss the crystal flood.

Just then Mr. Howe overtook the party and called out, "Boys, who would like to try some trout-fishing in the brook?"

Of course the boys were all eager for the sport; but where was the necessary fishing-tackle?

"Ah!" said Mr. Howe, "you see I have provided for that," producing a case filled with jointed rods, flies, lines, and all needful appliances for trout-fishing.

Each boy was soon supplied, and started off in search of the deep pools and sequestered waters favorable for their sport; while the girls rambled on, delighting themselves with the beautiful June flowers, peeping into each shaded recess for the modest feathered orchis--queen of its tribe, and most fragrant flower of the woods--and exploring the more open spaces near the brook, for the several varieties of elegant and fantastic "ladies' slippers," which abound in the woodlands of northern Vermont. Then the splendid lichens and ferns attracted their admiring notice; and before the hour for their repast arrived, they had accumulated a wealth of sylvan treasures wherewith to embellish their homes, and keep alive pleasant recollections of their brief sojourn in those woody solitudes.

At length an envoy from the farm-house arrived laden with refreshments--cards of pure white honey-comb filled with transparent sweets, cream of the richest, field strawberries in profusion, and milk fresh and abundant The girls soon spread the snow-white cloths on the turf at the foot of an ancient oak by the brook-side, and, under the direction of the elder ladies, emptied the baskets and prepared an ambrosial banquet, while Mr. Wingate called in the stragglers, and the young fishers of the party, to partake of it. They were reluctant to leave sports which they were enjoying so much, and saw the day drawing to a close with regret. Each boy brought a fine string of trout for the Friday morning's breakfast, and appetites sharpened by their green wood scramble to the luxurious and plentiful repast.

At the close of their meal they prepared to return, and were soon on their homeward course; the young people all declaring that they had never passed an afternoon more delightful. George and Henry were very sure, as they remarked to each other, that Frank Blair and his companions could not have had so pleasant a time on their frolic of the evening before.