IS2 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



even when she was so close to him that they knew each 

 other's thought without a whisper: — 



Yet I desire 

 To come more close to thee and to be nigher; 



still dissatisfied to find that their souls remained distinct 

 and separate when he would have had them touch like 

 two neighbouring rain-drops and become one. 



There was no such bar in my case; being one we 

 could not asunder dwell. For my mistress is more to 

 me than any Cynthia to any poet; she is immortal and 

 has green hair and green eyes, and her body and soul 

 are green, and to those who live with and love her she 

 gives a green soul as a special favour. 



With this feeling impelling me I quitted the train 

 and took to the wheel, which runs without a sound, 

 as a serpent glides or a swallow skims, and brings you 

 down to a closer intimacy with the earth. 



How unspeakably grateful we should be for this gift 

 — we lovers of the road and of nature's quietude who 

 have a meek and quiet spirit — to go on our way like 

 the owl by night on its downy silent wings! So quiet 

 is the wheel that on two separate occasions I have passed 

 a blind man on a quiet country road, so closely as almost 

 to touch him without his knowing it until I spoke. This 

 seemed marvellous to me when I considered the almost 

 preternatural keenness of the hearing sense in the blind, 

 especially in blind men who are accustomed to go freely 

 about in country places. In both instances the man, 

 when spoken to, started and wheeling partly round de- 



