We'll follow it down, and so arrive, at least, at a conclusion." They dismounted, and, leading their horses, followed the stream for some distance, to arrive at the conclusion that it was not the one beside which they had dined that day.

When they were certain of this, they turned and made their way back to the line of reeds which they had broken to mark their starting-point.

By now the moon was high, and the mockingbird in the wood across the water was singing madly.

Turning from the still, moonlit sheet, the silent reeds, the clear mimicker in the slumbrous wood, the two wayfarers plunged into the darkness beneath the spreading branches of the oak-trees.

They could not have ridden far from the pines; in a very little while they might reach and recognize the path which they should tread.
An hour later, the great trees, oak and chestnut, beech and poplar, suddenly gave way to saplings, many, close-set, and overrun with grapevines.