A SUMMER'S DAY. 357 



ranks of rushes, which grow tall and stately even to the 

 middle of the river, and which are crowned each by a tuft 

 of purplish blossom. There are golden asphodels and corn- 

 flags brilliant above the dark waters, overshadowed by the 

 wooded banks between which we pass. Beautiful leaves, 

 shaped like arrows and spears, and fit for the weapons of 

 wood-nymphs or water-babies, grow around ; and the pink 

 and purple flowers of the orchis grow in plenty from the 

 water-sodden soil of the bank-margins. Now and then the 

 beautiful water-lilies, yellow and white, will give us a kindly 

 greeting as we pass them, and will dip their flowers amid the 

 swell caused by the passing of our labouring craft ; whilst 

 the guelder-roses on the bank above are sweet, as the water- 

 plantains below are pretty in their lilac dress. 



A bend in the river brings us nigh to a quaint old village, 

 with a venerable church the mere remnant of a cathedral- 

 like edifice whose square tower forms a familiar county 

 landmark. The river winds past " God's Acre," where sleep 

 the "rude forefathers " of Hodge and his neighbours, whose 

 merry laugh reaches us from the harvest-fields on either side. 

 The church is left far behind by this time, however, and still 

 our river journey has not yet terminated. Still we wind in 

 and out, but the absence of wood and the uniformity of the 

 flat land around us, together with the widening of the stream, 

 show that we are approaching its estuary. Life is still 

 active in these lower reaches, despite the evening cool, 

 which makes itself felt as the time passes. Gnats circle 

 around us in plenty, and weather-wise people will tell us 

 that to-morrow may bring showers, because the swallows and 

 swifts are flying low after their insect prey. How graceful 

 the flight of these birds, and with what elegant curves, re- 

 minding one of the movements of a ship riding on the sur- 

 face of a heavy swell, do they dip and ascend ! A wild 

 duck has been alarmed by our too near approach, and 

 flutters in alarm and dismay before us, disappearing within a 

 reed-fringed haven, from which at the same time a frightened 

 moor-hen emerges, and makes its unsteady way along the low 



