ut of tbe ffieaten patb 



ESTENING to the creaking of a cricket is the 

 best recipe for day-dreams, and no day- 

 dreams in the country are so vivid as those of a 

 still August day, when the fields are flooded with 

 sunshine and not a leaf is stirring. Even the cows 

 quit grazing at hot high noon and gather in the 

 shade of wayside trees, or encircle the old oak 

 that stands amid-field, sole survivor, it may be, of 

 the woodland days, when fields were scattered 

 and the forests clothed the earth. All that goes 

 to make up the typical August day and there 

 are many such features was prominent as I 

 leaped the lane fence and wandered 'cross lots, 

 glad to get out of the beaten and dusty path, 

 from which the pedestrian is but too apt to be 

 waved aside into deeper dust by the omnipresent 

 wheelmen who appear of late to own all of such 

 one-time pleasant places. Pedestrianism bids fair 

 to become a lost art, more 's the pity. It is a mat- 

 ter of so many miles now, and not of so many 

 pleasant sights and sounds. 

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