56 ALONG THE WATERWAYS 



rooted in wet soil, and screened from the lane by 

 the end of the bridge, the straight stalks of the 

 Closed Gentian, so overgrown by good nourish- 

 ment as to be almost vine -like, can be counted 

 by the dozens. This flower is of perennial habit 

 of growth, and therefore, once established, is more 

 true to its haunts than the sun -loving blue Fringed 

 Gentian, which is an annual, dependent upon seed 

 alone for its continuance in the place where we 

 find it, and sought with eagerness from this very 

 elusiveness. 



The locusts droned away, Nell nodded into her 

 feed-bag, and we sat silently watching the bees, 

 that were helping themselves to a peach that was 

 beyond our capacity, and the ants who came on 

 sweet errands, and who had, by their passing year 

 by year to and fro from the press, worn a little 

 track in the soft boards. 



" Do cover up that ant - walk with a branch 

 or something," said Flower Hat. "I don't think 

 I like to watch ants; they are so industrious and 

 virtuous that, on a day like this, they seem a sort 

 of moral reproach to one. Oh, look!" 



At that moment a yellow swallow-tail butterfly 

 drove the bee from the peach, while a cloud of 



