Behind them and
beside them was the darkness of the cypress groves. Before them extended
a smooth floor, a wide level region, carpeted in the most vivid verdure
and sheeted with the sunshine, an immense bed of softest moss, underlaid
with black bog, quaking at every step, and shaking a thousand diamonds
into the light. Scarcely anything stirred through all the stretch; at
some runnel along its nearer margin, where upon one side the more broken
swamp recommenced, a rosy flamingo stood and fished, and, still remoter,
the melancholy note of a bird tolled its refrain, answered by an echoing
voice from some yet inner depth of forest far away. Save for this, the
silence was as intense as the vastness and color of the scene, till it
opened and resolved itself into one broad insect hum. The children took
a couple of steps forward, under their feet the elastic sod sank and
rose with a spurt of silver jets; they sprang back to their seats, and
the shading tree above shook down a shining shower in rillets of silver
rain. They remained for a minute, then, resting there.
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