170 JUNE. 



their bloom and greenness, amid the deepest grass 

 and the richest foliage ; and it is a merry sight to 

 see the little boys sporting like fishes in the water 

 where it has spread itself in shallow expanses on 

 the grass. 



Fishermen, too, take advantage of these floods. 

 The waters are rendered turbid, and the fish are 

 not only deprived of their ordinary quickness of 

 perception, but are washed out of their usual haunts. 

 Men may be seen hastening towards the rivers with 

 their nets, and find noble sport with carp and barbel 

 and other large fish, which lie luxuriating on the 

 warm banks amid the fresh herbage. 



SHEEP-SHEARING, begun last month,* is generally 

 completed this. It is one of the most picturesque 

 operations of rural life, and, from the most ancient 

 times, it has been regarded as a season of gladness 

 and festivity. The simple and unvitiated sense of 

 mankind taught them, in the earlier ages of society, 

 that the bounty of nature was to be gathered in 

 with thankfulness, and in a spirit like that of the 

 Great Giver, a spirit of blessing and benevolence. 

 Therefore did they join with the brightness and 

 beauty of the summer the sunshine of their grateful 

 souls, and collect with mirth and feasting the har- 

 vests of the field, of the forest, and of the flock. 

 The very spirits of the churlish, the hard and un- 

 kindly natures of the " sons of Belial," gave way 

 before the united influence of the fair and plentiful 

 time and of natural religion, so far as to feast their 

 servants. The Bible, that treasury of the customs 



