THE GARDENS OF THE SEA 53 



bearded with hairs, yellow, white, and 

 purple, while near by, where the grass 

 is shorter, blooms the fragrant rose 

 pogonia, both fringed and crested, 

 also an orchid. Over all the flowers 

 and grasses, the swallows skirt and dip, 

 and high above some vagrant clouds 

 cast dazzling shadows, and the breeze, 

 full of sea-moisture, leaves salt upon 

 the lips. This is to-day, but yesterday 

 the beauty was as great; last month the 

 soft new greens were brighter still, and 

 as the year wears on the colours burn 

 and deepen, and the herbage grows 

 richer and more luxuriant. 



In winter, when the frost-crust hid 

 the ground and the caked ice banked 

 the stiffened creek, the reeds and 

 sedges, long since gone to seed, rustled 

 and cracked in the wind, etching clear 

 shadows on the snow. The stripped 

 bushes, with every twig articulated by 



