J ULY 



SUMMER I glowing summer ! This is the 

 month of heat and sunshine ; of clear, fervid 

 skies, dusty roads, and shrinking streams ; 

 when doors and windows are thrown open : 

 a cool gale is the most welcome of all visitors, 

 and every drop of rain is worth its weight in 

 gold ! Such is July commonly ; yet it is some- 

 times, on the contrary, a very showery month, 

 putting the v haymaker to the extremity of his 

 patience, and the farmer upon anxious thoughts 

 for his ripening corn. Generally speaking, 

 however, it is the heart of our summer. The 

 landscape presents an air of warmth, dryness, 

 and maturity : the eye roves over brown pas- 

 tures, corn fields already white to harvest, dark 

 lines of intersecting hedge-rows, and darker 

 trees, lifting their heavy heads above them. 



