206 VIRGINIA 



lis also. On my way up the slope I had 

 stopped to admire a close bunch of a dozen 

 blossoms. The same soft breeze was blpw- 

 ing, and the same field sparrow chanting. 

 Yes, and the same buzzard floated overhead 

 and dropped the same moving shadow upon 

 the hillside. Now a prairie warbler sang or 

 a hyla peeped, but mostly the air was silent, 

 except for the murmur of pine needles and 

 the faint rustling of dry oak leaves. And 

 all around me stood the hills, the nearest of 

 them, to-day, blue with haze. 



For a while I went farther up the slope, 

 to a spot where I could look through a 

 break in the circle and out upon the world. 

 In one direction were green fields and blos- 

 soming apple-trees, and beyond them, of 

 course, a wilderness of mountains. But I 

 returned soon to my lower seat. It was 

 pleasanter there, where I was quite shut in. 

 The ground about me was sprinkled with 

 low azalea bushes, unnoticed a week ago, 

 now brightening with clustered pink buds. 

 What a picture the hill would make a few 

 days hence, and again, later still, when the 

 laurel should come into its glory ! 



Parting is sweet pain. It must be a 



