JUNE. 



177 



loveliness, and harmony. It is luxury to stand 

 beneath the forest side, when all is still and 

 basking at noon ; and to see the landscape sud- 

 denly darken, the black and tumultuous clouds 

 assemble as at a signal ; to hear the awful thun- 

 der crash upon the listening air ; and then, to 

 mark the glorious bow rise on the lurid rear of 

 the tempest, the sun laugh jocundly abroad, 

 and 



Every bathed leaf and blossom fair 

 Pour out its soul to the delicious air. 



It is luxury to haunt the gardens of old-fa- 

 shioned houses in the morning, when the bees 

 are flitting forth with a rejoicing hum ; or at 

 eve, when the honeysuckle and the sweet-briar 

 mingle their spirit with the breeze. It is lux- 

 ury to plunge into the cool river ; and, if ever 

 we are tempted to turn anglers, it must be now. 

 To steal away into a quiet valley, by a wind- 

 ing stream, buried, completely buried, in fresh 

 grass ; the foam-like flowers of the meadow- 

 sweet, the crimson loose-strife, and the large 

 blue geranium nodding beside us ; the dragon- 

 fly, the ephemera, and the king-fisher glancing 

 to and fro ; the trees above casting their flicker- 

 ing shadows on the stream ; and one of our ten 



N 



