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the nightshade, and no defunct ones beneath it. 

 They crept over flower and fruit alike, nibbling at 

 both. It is true these creatures have white blood, 

 and so no toxic effect would be produced as would 

 or might be the case with red-blooded life; but 

 the cow that disturbed our meditations cropped 

 alike this vine and the grass beneath it, and no 

 poisoning resulted while we were present, and 

 doubtless not afterward. Indeed, it seemed a fa- 

 vorite plant just here. Great green and bronzed 

 dragon-flies alighted upon it as well as upon the 

 rocks near by. One gorgeous fellow appeared to 

 sip the moisture from the bloom as might a butter- 

 fly. These splendid insects came and went continu- 

 ally. They did not skim the fields like low-flying 

 swallows, but often rose far into the measureless 

 upper air, and then, after towering far above us, 

 going straight away, not following the undula- 

 ting fields, but sped across the valley more than 

 a mile distant to rocks and nightshade on the 

 river's other shore. I easily followed their direct 

 flight with my field-glass. What humming and 

 buzzing they made at times, like the roar of a 

 great city, as though, like us poor mortals, they 

 were burdened with many cares. 



Beyond the nightshade grew a rank Virginia 

 creeper, and summer must end far earlier on 

 these hill-tops than in the valley; for plants are 

 still in the vigor and freshness of spring on my 

 lowland fields, while here the fruit shows, and 

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