Catharine cast many a fearful glance through the brushwood as they moved
onward, but saw no living thing, excepting a family of chipmunks gaily
chasing each other along a fallen branch, and a covey of quails, that
were feeding quietly on the red berries of the _Mitchella repens,_ or
twinberry, [Footnote: Also partridge-berry and checker-berry, a lovely
creeping winter-green, with white fragrant flowers, and double scarlet
berry.] as it is commonly called, of which the partridges and quails
are extremely fond; for Nature, with liberal hand, has spread abroad her
bounties for the small denizens, furred or feathered, that haunt the Rice
Lake and its flowery shores.
After a continued but gentle ascent through the oak opening, they halted at
the foot of a majestic pine, and looked round them. It was a lovely spot
as any they had seen; from west to east, the lake, bending like a silver
crescent, lay between the boundary hills of forest trees; in front, the
long lines of undulating wood-covered heights faded away into mist, and
blended with the horizon.
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