tbe Blitbe Brook 173 



close beside us, and the kingfisher from down-stream 

 dropped in to call, and the tenant frog stared at us 

 from his pool, and the oxen in the next lot sent looks 

 of fellowship across the stone wall, and we seemed 

 to blend our lives with that of the brook, and for 

 each of us, child, man, and woman, the poet's word 

 was true : 



" Beauty through my senses stole ; 

 I yielded myself to the perfect whole." 



I suppose all this prattle about the brook seems 

 very aimless and short of the mark to my friends the 

 fishermen ; and they will doubtless feel a wondering 

 disdain for a man who can waste time on a brook 

 without a rod and line. Yet I think 1 have fished 

 well in New England's brooks, and have brought 

 home as much as they, though 1 never cast a fly or 

 killed a trout. 



" Hast thou named all the birds without a gun ? 

 Loved the wood-rose and left it on its stalk ? 



Oh, be my friend, and teach me to be thine." 



8? 



