sportively drawing her bow-string and loosing an arrow over his head;
he waddled off with singular speed, and was in much awe of her for
many months. I thought he had forgotten it: but let that pass.
In truth, she would have had little of her lover's company, if she had
liked the chaunt of the choristers better than the cry of the hounds:
yet I know not; for they were companions from the cradle, and reciprocally
fashioned each other to the love of the fern and the foxglove.
Had either been less sylvan, the other might have been more saintly;
but they will now never hear matins but those of the lark,
nor reverence vaulted aisle but that of the greenwood canopy.
They are twin plants of the forest, and are identified with its growth.

For the slender beech and the sapling oak,
That grow by the shadowy rill,
You may cut down both at a single stroke,
You may cut down which you will.

But this you must know, that as long as they grow
Whatever change may be,
You never can teach either oak or beech
To be aught but a greenwood tree."





CHAPTER III

Inflamed wrath in glowing breast.--BUTLER.