l6o THE FRIENDSHIP OF NATURE 



borders of the marsh, where it had 

 escaped the mowers. There was a 

 great fluttering in the bayberries and 

 sand-plum bushes; they bent and 

 swayed, and the heavy-topped golden- 

 rod quivered unreasonably. Becom- 

 ing curious, I crept behind a trail of 

 old rail fences toward the place, briers 

 holding me back and all the weeds 

 clutching at me with their desperate 

 little seed claws. From the bushes the 

 swallows darted, percussive, bolt-like, 

 then spreading widely, flying by tens 

 and hundreds, cutting the air with the 

 scattering swiz-z-z of shot, followed by 

 the smoke of intense vibration, until 

 they seemed only a point in the dis- 

 tance, yet a punctuation point in the 

 unbroken phrase of summer. 



We are never ready for autumn, 

 when the almanac doles out September. 

 Mind and body are relaxed and ex- 



