AN ARCADIAN CALENDAR 



the hill, but is active enough when an adder is on its 

 trail. 



MEADOWLAND 



" I CAN never read in Summer out-of-doors," said 

 Richard Jefreries, nor, he added, could he 

 Reading write: " Three words, and where is the 

 Out-of- thought? Gone." What makes reading 

 doors under some meadow-tree an almost hope- 



less task to-day is the multitudinous insect 

 life attracted by the open page. Some midge, fly, spider, 

 ant, or ladybird, lands on the book every moment, and 

 small green grasshoppers seem to delight in the book 

 as a spring-board. Above the grass, in the light of a low 

 sun, the air is seen quivering with gold- winged mites. 

 Small wonder that the birds dearly love a shorn meadow 

 where every step, every peck with the bill, and every 

 wing-beat disturbs fresh game. 



HAYMAKERS have scarcely left the shorn fields before 

 they are painted in gold once more by 

 The those dandelion-like flowers on which 



Hawk's hawks feed (they say) to brighten their 

 Flower eyes. Few country people, whether learned 

 or " no scholards," can give these common 

 flowers of the chicory group their rightful names, many 

 of them amusingly descriptive, like yellow goat's-beard, 

 or Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon ; bristly ox-tongue, cat's-ear, 

 hawk-bit, hawk's-beard, and mouse-eared hawkweed 

 the botanical hair-splitter has made out of this last 

 flower's genus over one hundred species. The handsome 

 orange hawkweed has earned, from its black hairs, the 

 quaintest name of all Grim the Collier. 

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