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Show •141 had found no solid bottom to lay foundations on. My brother put his forehead down on the steering-wheel and appeared to have fallen into a dream. I got out of the car and walked to the edge of the blacktop. Here was a little stream where I had hunted for frogs and tadpoles; I looked down into the water, the weeds that bent with the slight current, the wriggling busy life under the surface. Mysterious watery hidden life, but some deep part of me understands it very well. I went across, stepping on a downed trunk; the ground under the trees was marshy and overgrown with broad-leaved plants, a dark succulent vigorous vegetation. "Wait for me Buck." I heard the car door slam and I saw him come gingerly through the woods, trying to find dry places to set his feet, stepping carefully over pools of black water. We perched ourselves at opposite ends of a fallen tree. Jacob in his lawyer's suit looked out of place in these gloomy vital surroundings which were bursting out everywhere with secret life. At our feet newborn weeds reared out of the muck to claim a share of the light; little damp animals wiggled under the dead leaves; a feverish Nature continually murmured "live! live!" We straddled our log and stared at each other. The sounds of passing traffic lost themselves in tangles of |