A TASTE OF KENTUCKY BLUE-GRASS 223 



dow, I thought I began to see a change. Presently 

 I was very sure I did. It began to appear in the 

 more grassy character of the woods. Then I caught 

 sight of peculiarly soft and uniform grassy patches 

 here and there in the open. Then in a few mo- 

 ments more the train had shot us fairly into the edge 

 of the blue-grass region, and the farmer in me began 

 to be on the alert. We had passed in a twinkling 

 from a portion of the earth's surface which is new, 

 which is of yesterday, to a portion which is of the 

 oldest, from the carboniferous to the lower silurian. 

 Here, upon this lower silurian, the earth that saw 

 and nourished the great monsters and dragons was 

 growing the delicate blue-grass. It had taken all 

 these millions upon millions of years to prepare the 

 way for this little plant to grow to perfection. I 

 thought I had never seen fields and low hills look so 

 soft in the twilight; they seemed clad in greenish 

 gray fur. As we neared Mount Sterling, how fat 

 and smooth the land looked ; what long, even, gently 

 flowing lines against the fading western sky, broken 

 here and there by herds of slowly grazing or else 

 reposing and ruminating cattle! What peace and 

 plenty it suggested! From a land raw and crude 

 and bitter like unripe fruit, we had suddenly been 

 transported into the midst of one ripe and mellow 

 with the fullness of time. It was sweet to look upon. 

 I was seized with a strong desire to go forth and 

 taste it by a stroll through it in the twilight. 



In the course of the ten days that followed, the 

 last ten days of May, I had an opportunity to taste it 



