Annie also made friends with the spring in the depression. The water was clear, deep and cool as ice. The bottom of the spring was covered with smooth red sandstone, surrounded by fern plants as wide as coconut leaves. Across the river on the other side of the spring was a single-plank bridge.

    Walk across the wooden bridge and you will see the woods on the hill. The woods were lined with huge firs and shrimps. The meadow was always as dark as dusk, and the flowers there, beside the most tender, lovely, dreamy daffodils, which abound in the forest, were dotted with a few gorgeous, ghostly, faded Batesheim stars of a faint beauty. There were silvery cobwebs hanging from branch to branch, and the fir branches and the web seemed to whisper affectionately.