ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 101 



perhaps. Or was he, as I could not help 

 asking, some duly appointed officer of the 

 day, grand marshal, if you please, 

 with a commission to see all hands in be- 

 fore retiring himself? He waited, at any 

 rate, till the final stragglers had passed ; 

 then he came down out of the air and fol- 

 lowed them. I meant to watch the ingath- 

 ering a second time, to see whether this fea- 

 ture of it would be repeated, but I was 

 never there at the right moment. One can- 

 not do everything. 



Now, alas, Florida seems very far off. I 

 am never likely to walk again under those 

 New Smyrna live-oaks, nor to see again all 

 that beauty of the Hillsborough. And yet, 

 in a truer and better sense of the word, I 

 do see it, and shall. What a heavenly light 

 falls at this moment on the river and the 

 island woods ! Perhaps we must come back 

 to Wordsworth, after all, 



" The light that never was, on sea or land." 



