By Howard S. Whitley
If the members of the AMC had come to Ponkapoag immediately upon the retreat of the glacier, they would have seen the pond at twice its present size, and in a terrain bleak and desolate. By waiting, they gave the trees a chance to grow oak and pine and flowering dogwood; and what they lost of the pond they gained in a marsh dear to the hearts of bird lovers, botanists, and naturalists generally. They waited patiently until the close of World War I.
With the end of that war came a period of restlessness. To both military and civilian, life had begun getting stuffy. People were tired of restriction and regimentation, of crowed trains and restaurants, of planned entertainment and spectator sports, of waiting in line and being told what to do. They wanted to be where they could do as they pleased, where each could go is own gait and wander as he chose. Some sought freedom on the hills, in the woods, or by the lonely dunes.
The members of the AMC were casting about new sites on which to pitch their tents. For nearly two decades they had maintained a camp at Three Mile Island with swimming, canoeing and tennis close at hand and hills not far away. Now, unsatisfied, they were establishing two new camps, one at Cold River in 1919 and one at Echo Lake in 1922. In the meantime they were aware of the need of a camp near Boston, a camp which could serve them summer and winter and which would be accessible not only to a limited group, but to the entire membership. The widespread demand for a camp within commuting distance of Boston prompted the Council, in June of 1920, to send out a questionnaire asking for suggestions.
President Kelsey, at a corporate meeting held in January 12, 1921, commented on the favorable response to this questionnaire and on the umber of additional pleas for such a camp. He suggested that the proposed camp “should be in the wilds, on water, and should provide boating, fishing, snow shoeing and all similar outdoor recreation.” In the following April he appointed a “committee on Camp near Boston: Mr. Fred Tucker, Chairman Messrs. Harland A. Perkins and William F. Rodgers.”
Howard S. Whitley, a patent attorney in Boston, has long been a visitor to the AMC Camp at Ponkapoag, and in this article tells us much about the history, not only of the Camp, but also of the interesting region in which it is located. In this article, we complete the survey of the Club’s Camps, begun in December 1942, with the “Annals of the Three Mile Island Camp” and continued with “the Growth of the Cold River Camp” in December 1944. “Camps and Chapters” in June, 1945, and “Twenty-five Years of Echo Lake Camp: in June 1947.
The Members of this Committee had started work even before their appointment. Various sites, including beaches on the south Shore and a wooded spot on the Ipswich River, were considered by them; but all these sites were found unsuitable.
One day Mr. Will Rodgers was driving along Randolph Street, just south of Ponkapoag Pond. He gazed from time to time at Great Blue Hill with its observatory tower, and at its image mirrored in the water. Suddenly the thought came to him, “This is the place.” From that moment there was no longer any question where the new camp was to be.
Will Rogers called upon his friend Mr. Arthur H. Tucker of Milton and described to him the advantages of Ponkapoag as a location for the proposed camp. Mr. Tucker’s family had lived for generations in Milton and had given their name to Tucker Hill. Mr. Tucker, himself, had been closely associated with Mr. Rogers in exploration and trail cutting in the Blue Hills. He had much to do with the Development of Ponkapoag, first as a volunteer helper to Mr. Rogers, and later as chairman of the committee.
Will Rodgers and Arthur Tucker, having agreed upon Ponkapoag as the most suitable locality, began prospecting for a campsite. Tramping in along an old cart path that has since been made into the present motor road, they selected the high knolls at the eastern end of the pond as the most suitable spot. This land, even then, was part of the Blue Hills Reservation, and negotiations were begun at once with the Metropolitan District Commission for the privilege of establishing an AMC camp there. A report of the committee, published in the Bulletin for May 1921, the Secretary of the Metropolitan District Commission issued a formal document granting
“the Appalachian Mountain Club permission to use a portion of the Blue Hills Reservation on the northeast side of Ponkapoag Pond for the use of members of the club and their guests”
The June, 1921, Bulletin carried the following announcement:
“There is a strong demand for an A.M.C. weekend camp near Boston. What seems a very satisfactory site on Ponkapoag Pond, Blue Hills Reservation, has been offered the Club by the Park Commissioners with free use of the land. This is a wild spot, little visited, with good tramping country all about, and has the advantage of being protected by the Park police”
This announcement then discussed the problem of financing the new camp, and suggested the purchase by members of shares at ten dollars each in return for the privilege of putting up their tents on private sites.
The Ponkapoag group began to lie out the camp. Their first problem was the transportation of equipment, for the only road to the campsite was an almost impassable cart path. At the far end of the pond, however, was an excellent road, Maple Avenue, leading through the golf grounds to the waters edge. Mr. Dean Peabody remembers bringing tents over this road and ferrying them across the pond in rowboats. It was a good fellowship, everyone helping everyone else to clear tent sites, set up board floors, cut kindling wood, carry water, cook meals, and do all the odd jobs familiar to August Campers. The main building was erected in portable sections by the E.F. Hodgson Company.
The Camp, thus established in July, 1921, is described in the December issue of Appalachia, 1922, as consisting of the main building and twenty-nine tents, six of which were owned by the Club and the remainder by individual members. The resident caretakers, Mr. And Mrs. L.A. Springer, served meals on the porch of the main building. Two rowboats were available for the use of the members; there was also a pier and sandy beach for bathing. During the four months that the camp had been open, there had been eleven hundred registrations.
Until Captain Joseph P.F. Rooney of the Park Administration directed the rebuilding of the old cart path, in August of 1922, to make the present motor road into Camp, members had to park their cars near Houghton Pond and walk in over the wagon track; or else they had to park at Mr. Bowley’s on high Street, a mile or so south of Blue I‑Ell River Road, and walk in over a large tract of land owned by Mr. Ellerton James.
Mr. James granted permission to pass over his land. In a hastily dictated letter dated 10 Post Office Square, Boston, June 10, 1921, he informed Fred Tucker:
“I should be very glad to have your members walk over my land during the months of July, August, and September, providing they keep to the cart tracks, and also that they carry their cards with them to show my guardian. The rest of the year I would rather they did not go on my land very much, except going to and from the cabin … part of the charm of the place to Mrs. James and myself is its loneliness. We feel that we can go in there in any old clothes we happen to have on, and wander about without much possibility of meeting anybody … The wild things that I wish to naturalize do not like it if people are walking about very much where they are nesting and breeding… human presence will disturb the wild things; especially around the duck pond where I have got several pairs of ducks nesting this year, I want to keep inhuman as possible.”
The Duck Pond is still as wild as Mr. James could wish it. And still as lonely. Except on rare occasions when skaters find the ice on Ponkapoag unsatisfactory. Mr. James died some years after writing the letter his wife died shortly after; and, in deference to their wishes, the executors sold the property, six hundred and four acres, for a nominal price to the Metropolitan District Commission. The un-human things will be forever safe.
The many visitors who did not come by car took the Brockton trolley at Mattapan Square, got out at High Street, and walked along the new Blue Hill River Road and thence by trail into Camp. To shorten the traveling time for these people, Fred Tucker, in the early part of 1923, presented the Camp with a new ten-passenger auto bus. The installation of a telephone at Camp enabled pedestrians to call the camp manager in advance and arrange for transportation directly to into Camp. This bus was used until it became practically unserviceable; it was sold it 1929. By that time the increasing use of private cars and laying out of a new foot trail had rendered it unnecessary.
This new trail was the work of George M. Smith and it is known in his honor as the Blue Smith Trail. It is the most direct and also the most picturesque path into Camp from Randolph Avenue bus line. Since Mr. Smith had planned this path for the use of A.M.C. members, purposely refrained from marking the entrance conspicuously enough to attract the general public. It can be found, however, anyone who looks for it, leading from the west side of High Street just behind Howard Johnson’s. It is linked by a connecting trail, also made by Mr. Smith, to the Fern Spring Trail in the Blue Hills.
Mr. Will Rogers was elected President of the A.M.C. for the years 1922 and 1923. In March 1922, he appointed the following Committee on Ponkapoag: Arthur H. Tucker, Chairman; George Q. Hill and Frank Mattson. This committee announced in the Bulletin that “Mr. And Mrs. Springer, who were so successful in managing the camp last year, will again for the season on May 29th The practice of serving meals on the porch was continued.
Ponkapoag was still so far as living quarters were concerned, a tent colony, The main building served as a meeting place and refuge for out‑of‑season activities. Dances and skating parties were held there, and groups would gather by outdoor fires in the evening. It was recognized from the beginning, however, that suitable winter housing would be necessary of Ponkapoag were to serve its purpose as an all year camp. With this end in view, Will Rogers got busy and set his fellow members an example. An experienced woodsman, he selected the sound timber from chestnut trees that had been killed by the blight and built a log cabin for himself. The North Cabin, built for the Camp Master’s living quarters, and the South Cabin “to be used for social gatherings,” both built of chestnut logs, are also mentioned in the Annual Report for 1926. Russ Palmer and Bob Clough announced a housewarming for February 5, 1928, to celebrate the opening of their new cabin, with coffee, doughnuts, and hot dogs. Most of the cabins erected later were of the portable-house type.
Mr. Wallace W. Morse, in his Annual Report for 1929, states that: “this past season we have used the Bryant Cabin as well as the South Cabin for over night use by members.” Mr. Bryant had died shortly after putting up his cabin, and in his will he left the cabin to the Camp. Mr. Irving Meredith reports in 1930: “In June a new cabin was built at a cost of $155.00, which holds four people comfortably. In the six months in which this cabin has been available it has brought in as rent $45.50.” Mr. Meredith shortly after this, erected a similar cabin for himself Gradually, over a period of years, all the tents were replaced by cabins until there are now, in addition to the main building, twenty three cabins owned by members and six cabins held by the Club for the use of members at a nominal rent.
At the time the A.M.C. Camp was established much of the pond shore lay within the Blue Hills Reservation. Mr. Rogers, however, was concerned by the fact that a considerable stretch along the western portion of the south shore was privately owned.
On one of his off-season visits to the pond he saw a lone skater approaching the shore, Hailing the stranger, Will explained to him the desirability of having all of the land bordering the pond brought into the reservation. The skater happened to be Mr. Augustus Hemenway, owner of a parcel of land bordering the pond. As a result of Mr. Roger’s eloquence, Mr. Hemenway offered not only to give his own land, assessed at $21,500, to the Reservation, but to do his best in the way of persuading the other land owners to give theirs. Mr. Rogers, with his fellow members of the Ponkapoag Committee, then visited Mr. James Bailey of the Metropolitan District Commission to urge the acquisition for the reservation of the remaining shore frontage. Mr. Bailey told them to go ahead and do what they could do to obtain the land; the Commission would cooperate. Will Rogers, with the help of Mr. Hemenway, worked hard to carry out the project. In 1928, Will himself was appointed to the Metropolitan District Commission, and as Associate Commissioner he continued his efforts. His success is recorded in the Boston Transcript for October 31, 1934, in an article announcing that all of Ponkapoag Pond had been brought into the Reservation
“What completed the commission’s link around the pond was the acquisition just announced by William F. Rogers, Associate Commissioner, of a strip on the southwest shore about 1800 feet long which constituted the waterfront of the estate owned by Mrs. Robert Saltonstall. This strip is 200 feet wide in places and is heavily wooded down to the waters edge … Property owners around the shore have been in sympathy with the idea and have cooperated generously. Among those most helpful have been Mr. and Mrs. Robert Saltonstall , Augustus Hemenway, Jr., William Prescott Wolcott, Mrs. Ellerton James and Horatio Hathaway, who have released their possessions by gift or nominal purchase prices to complete the commissions plan.”
With all of the shore frontage of the pond under its control the commission set about to build new paths. For this work they utilized the services of the young men of the newly formed Civilian Conservation Corps. Until now there had been no path leading all the way around the pond; such a path was completed adding connecting links between the old paths.
One of these links, named “Acton Path” on the Reservation map, opened up a new approach to the Camp. Less rigged than the Blue Smith Trail, it is a favorite route with snowshoes and with those who do their snowshoeing on skis. Running along the south shore of the pond, it connects the eastern end of the Maple Avenue with the southern end of Swamp Road, the latter being an extension of the only motor road into camp. The Acton Path, a woods road closed to motor vehicles, passes through a beautiful growth of mixed evergreens and under occasional arches of white birches. At a convenient resting place along this path, not far from the Camp, is a spring that has been cleaned out and walled up by the Reservation Administration. The water flowing from a pipe tinkles into a little pool; and here the walker often stops to fill his cup. This spring is designated on the Reservation map as the “Hemenway Spring” to commemorate the donor of the adjacent land.
To reach the camp by way of the Acton Path one takes the Canton or Stoughton bus to the Ponkapoag Golf Club, and walks along Maple Avenue through the golf grounds (also part of the Reservation) until he reaches the outlet of the pond. Where the Acton Path begins. Here by the dam, he may pause; a mile away, due east across the pond, he can see the cabins of the A.M.C. Camp; to his left is a wide expanse of marsh and, beyond it the broken sky‑line of the Blue Hills.
The marsh is one of the interesting features of Ponkapoag. A half mile across, it is bounded on the west and north by the Redman Farm path, known as “Pond Bank” to the early settlers, Bordering the watery edge of the marsh are cattails, pickerel-weed, sedges, black alder, button bush, laurel, sphagnum moss, High and low bush berries, and wild cranberries; Closer to the high ground are cedar and maple swamps. Mink, muskrat, and otter make their homes in this marsh; black ducks in winter seek its all‑year open spring; an occasional great blue heron rises from its ready margin.
Mr. William J.V. Babcock, Professor of Biology at the Eastern Nazarene College and director of the Rover Scout Camp on the North Shore of the pond and also a member of the A.M.C.), has been studying the marsh. At one point he determined the position of the original shore‑line of the pond to an accuracy of six inches. By making a series of borings through the mud, he located the original pebbly bottom; in some places, he found it fifty feet below the surface. What is now the shallow end of the pond was once the deep end.
According to Mr. Babcock, the marsh was not formed by the deposit of silt because the pond is fed mainly by springs. It has been built up, through the ages, by gradual accumulation of organic material. Plants growing in the shallower portions of the pond die and their remains sink to the bottom, spreading, to some extent, into the adjacent deeper portions. As this material decays, the resulting bubbles of entrapped marsh gas render it buoyant and cause clumps of it to rise to the surface. These clumps, seeded by natural agencies, become floating islands of vegetation; many of them sink with the added material and repeat the process, and others attached to the edge of the marsh, extend to the shore at the expense of the pond. All this is going on now in much the same fashion as it did thousands of years ago.
Many improvements were made at Camp during 1935 and 1936 under the chairmanship of Mr. A.C. Wilkinson. A new pump was installed, and also a complete new telephone line. The members of the C.C.C. made log steps up the steep bank from the parking place to the main building, and then down to the pond shore; and they improved the boat landing. The attendance increased; in 1935, “exclusive of opening day, over 1,700 were served and it is estimated that over 4500 visits were made to camp.”
Mr. Cecil B. Atwater, during his chairmanship, instituted a nature study project. He had a cabin erected for exhibits and a nature trail laid out with markers to identify the growing plants. He obtained the loan of small native animals, such as squirrels, woodchucks, and a raccoon, from the Middlesex Fells Zoo; and he obtained the loan of charts and other material from the New England Museum of Natural History. In carrying out this project he enlisted the aid of Bradford Washburn, who came out to Ponkapoag and gave a talk on mountains and exploration equipment. Richard Dow, of the Museum staff, and Constance Hathaway, the Camp Naturalist, led nature walks and gave talks on natural history. Mr. Francis A. Young, also of the Museum staff, continued these activities. In 1939, over 1.300 different persons signed in the register of the nature cabin; and still more signed in 1940. This project lapsed during the war years because of the withdrawal of many of the A.M.C. members into the armed services and also because of the ban on pleasure driving. The Nature Cabin has been used by skaters and skiers; it has served as a dressing room for swimmers; and it is now one of the cabins available for rent to Club members.
As the Camp developed, many new features were introduced to add to its attractions. Recent improvements include the installation of a power plant to provide light and running water for the main building.
The recreational activities of Ponkapoag are many and varied. For the tennis enthusiast, there are courts at the entrance to the motor road to the camp; for the golfer, there is the public course at the western end of the pond. Saddle horses can be had at several stables in the neighborhood. Other sports, such as pitching horseshoes, can be practiced at Camp. On any summers day the visitor may join a laughing, splashing group of swimmers at the landing, or hire a boat in search of solitude; and in the quiet hours of the morning he may go fishing or just drift in a canoe and watch the mist rise, until the fragrance of frying bacon and coffee, blended with wood smoke, lures him back.
Outdoor life does not cease with the coming of winter. Skaters have been gliding over the ice of Ponkapoag for at least two hundred years. The first one that we know about is Elijah Dunbar if Stoughton. Born in 1740, he records in his diary that, when young, he had skated on Ponkapoag Pond. On any weekend nowadays, when the ice is good, the pond thronged with skaters. Some, more exclusive, prefer Duck Pond to practice figure eights without a grandstand. As the snow begins to deepen, the snowshoers will track their way over the network of trails, viewing winter scenery at its best and in the Blue Hills, not far from Camp, are ski slopes for novice and expert. After such exertion, one returns to a cozy cabin and recounts the day’s adventure to his friends around the stove.
The sport most popular at Ponkapoag is rambling through the woods or over hills. The Sky‑line Trail, within easy walking distance of Camp, is rugged enough to please the hardiest tramper. The sum total of its ups and downs makes it equivalent to a mountain trail. Here even the rock-climber can find, a few yards off the trail, terrain suited to his taste, the Rattlesnake Rocks with their Blueberry Traverse of toe holds and finger grips, leading to a tiny out‑slopping platform known as the Tea Party. For the great majority who do not care to carry rope, or who have forgotten how to tie a bowline, there are twenty distinct summits, each with its own rewarding outlook. A network of trails, including the Sky‑line Trail, link these summits to one another. Much of this trail system was laid out by Will Rogers, George M. Smith and Arthur H. Tucker.
Some of the Walks scheduled in the A.M.C. Bulletin have included a visit to the Camp for supper and an evening of sociability and entertainment. One such walk, over Chickatawbut, Buck Hill, Doe Hill, and Tucker Hill, is recorded in a blue hill route map by Mr. E. G. Chamberlain. The old timers who remember Mr. Chamberlain will recall, while keeping up with the group he would take compass bearings and count his steps and glare, excusably, with silent profanity at anyone who interrupted him.
The social life at Ponkapoag takes many forms. Fish fry’s are sometimes held at the fireplaces by the shore. For those who like to sing sad songs by evening fires, or listen to the telling of tall tales, there is ample opportunity. Some like to dance in the main building. There is always a party at opening day, and usually at Halloween. The entertainment provided at some of these parties borders on the exotic: on one occasion a sword dancer gracefully preformed at the boat landing to the strains of highland pipes while the sun was setting across the pond.
The student of natural history, however casual a student he may be, will find a lot to interest him at Ponkapoag. If he is lucky, he may happen to be there when George M. Smith is leading an informal walk. Not far from camp, some ten minutes’ walk South East, is a delightful spot known as the Hemlocks. Here, near a spring bordered with ferns, are hemlock trees that have been growing for some two hundred years. Intersecting the Blue Hill Smith Trail are numerous by‑paths worth exploring, where one can find, according to the season, skunk cabbage, at least two species of jack‑in‑the‑pulpit violets, marsh marigolds, lady‑slippers, wild columbine, sheep laurel, and mountain laurel: and one can see the flowering dogwood at its best. Lichens and mosses are plentiful, and also ferns, including a rare species. Poison sumac is scattered here and there: Mr. Smith warns against experimenting with it.
Of the trees around Ponkapoag, white pine is the leading evergreen‑, red cedar and juniper are plentiful on the high ground, and white cedar in the bogs. Among the deciduous trees are oak, ash, birch, elm, maple, and sassafras; some of the sassafras trees grow to the unusual height of almost 60 feet. This list does not pretend to be complete; Mr. Babcock, strolling along the south shore of the pond, observed over 50 species of trees.
The wild life of this region includes such higher vertebrates as mink, muskrats, otter, chipmunks, squirrels, skunks, raccoons, red foxes and Appalachians. Birds are numerous; over 200 ducks have been seen swimming together in the pond, and almost as many geese, in a single flock, have stopped there in migration. Black duck can be seen all year round. There are also red shoulder hocks, some times an eagle, great blue heron, blue birds, yellow warblers, tanagers, and Baltimore orioles, to mention only a few. And in the pond itself, are pickerel, large mouth green bass, calico bass, yellow perch, sunfish, catfish, eels, and countless turtles.
The pre‑Appalachian history of the locality goes back near nearly 3 centuries. The name “Ponkapoag” in the early days, applied not only to the pond, but also to a large area bordering on the pond and extending to the south and west. “The signification of the name is taken from a spring that ariseth out of red earth,” according to Daniel Gookin’s Historical Collections of the Indian in New England. This spring, in Mi. George M. Smiths opinion is most likely the one on the west side of High Street about a half mile south of Blue Hill River Road. In 1657 a town meeting of Dorchester, at the instance of John Elliot, “Apostle to the Indians,” voted to set aside 6,00 acres at Ponkapoag as a “plantation” for the Neponsets, then in camp at Unquity where the Baker chocolate factory now stands. These Indians, some 60 of them, after there removal to the plantation, became known as the Ponkapoag Indians. They adopted the ways of their white neighbors and lived in harmony with them; and the white settlers began a peaceful infiltration, purchasing land from the Indians bit by bit, until they owned it all. The land now occupied by the Ponkapoag Golf Club was leased by the Indians to Charles Redman and later deeded to his son Robert and it has ever since been known as the Redman Farm. An early map in Daniel Huntoon’s History of Canton indicates that one Ezekiel Fisher had a sawmill on Ponkapoag Brook and that just below the sawmill was a gristmill. These mills are referred to in a deed of 1823 (Ellis Aries History of the Redman Farm) as “Trench and Tuckers Grist and Saw mill.” Remnants of the old mill damn are still visible. In 1803, Captain John Tucker bought the Redman farm and later opened a tavern where Maple Avenue ends at route 138.
“The veteran soldiers of the revolution had a reunion and afterward and enjoyed a fish chowder under the shade of a large buttonwood that stood about where the modem avenue crosses the old Ponkapoag bank.”
“The modem avenue” was later named Maple Avenue. “Pond bank” was the ancient name of the Redman Farm Path, which was some distance inland from the actual shore of the pond John Tucker’s son, William, named the tavern the “Ponkapoag Hotel” and continued its operation. How well this hotel prospered is told by Huntoon:
“A number of Boston gentlemen were in the habit of coming out to Ponkapoag to pass the day. And from 1830 ‑ 1850 the hotel was mostly patronized by them and by scores of their friends who were fond of a day’s recreation. Captain Tucker erected a shelter on Puffer’s Neck, which was known as the Sheep Shore; and here celebrated chowders were made by the landlord, who was well versed in the mysteries of the culinary art.”
Huntoon further states that William Tucker “had a fine route across his farm to the pond, a good landing place with boats, and opportunities for a fish fry.” A rival innkeeper named Gerald was not to be outdone by these attractions,
“Had a canal dug in 1831 from the old pond bank near where the house of David Talbot stood, through the bogs to the pond, placed upon it a boat, and announced that boats were in readiness for those who desired a sailing or fishing excursion on Ponkapoag pond; but the scheme was not a success.”
This canal, named “Gerald or Puffer Ditch” on the Redman Farm map, extended a half a mile through the marsh. Traces of it can still be seen. The most distinguished resident of Ponkapoag was Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Here, before assuming editorship of the Atlantic Monthly, he wrote 23 poems for that publication and nearly half his entire collected prose work, and he also spent many hours with his sons fishing for perch and pickerel. Mark Twain, one of his many visitors, is said to conferred upon Aldrich the title “Duke of Ponkapoag.” After retiring from the Atlantic, and while retaining his townhouse at no. 59 Mt. Vernon Street. Aldrich made the old Redman Farm house his summer home. The Redman Farm, at that time, was owned by Aldrich’s friend and neighbor, the Hon. Henry L. Pierce. In 1897, Mr. Pierce died at Mr. Aldrich’s home on Mt. Vernon Street, leaving a life interest in the Redman Farm to Mr. And Mrs. Aldrich; after the death of Mrs. Aldrich, who survived her husband, the Redman farm became a part of the Blue Hills Reservation and was made into the present golf grounds Ponkapoag has always been a retreat to those who love the wilderness. The Indians settled on its shore to escape crowding from the white men; city dwellers came for a day’s outing to its nearby taverns; Thomas Bailey Aldrich sought freedom at Ponkapoag to do his greatest work. The place is still a wilderness, and always will be with space in which to live and think and drowse, with lonely trails to follow and a pond to drift upon, and friendly meeting places close at hand if solitude gets too oppressive. The member of the A.M.C and their guests are fortunate in having this camp at their disposal.
FOREST TIMETABLE
By Elizabeth Knowlton
A.M.
Everything in the woods is dancing,
Tossing rustling brightness glancing –
Laughter of early sunlight
Wind of the morning calling!
P.M .
On the woods descends a hush.
No leaf stirs, in tree or bush.
Peace of dim green twilight.
Shadows of evening falling.