io6 



pursuit, capture, laughter, and shouting. 

 The captors hang their cradles carefully in 

 the shade, and go jocundly to their waiting 

 dinner. 



See what a green tent the great mulberry 

 spreads here in this sea of gold ! The limbs 

 droop quite to meet the springing grain. 

 You have but to reach forth a hand and 

 pluck the luscious fruit. If you like not the 

 flavor, come on to the near hedge-row, where 

 wild raspberries hang ripe and juicy, and 

 dainty enough for Titania's banquet. Make 

 a cup for them of grape-leaves, and your 

 feast shall have true woodland savor. Or, 

 if you have a mind for flowers, fill your arms 

 with milk-white elder clusters, with pink 

 trails of wild rose and wax -white milk-weed 

 blossom and garish butterfly orchis, besides 

 clematis and brake fern, and scarlet pink- 

 root and yellow cinque-foil, and a hundred 

 nameless beautiful things that blush unseen 

 through wood and field. Gather, and go 

 quickly to shelter. The noon heat is like 

 a furnace. It will shrivel up your blossoms 

 even quicker than it cures the grain. Sheaves 

 half green this morning lie dry and yellow, 

 ready to be put in the shock. Long ere 

 nightfall the whole field will be thick set 

 with the golden cones. Towards evening 



