298 FROM A MIDDLESEX GARDEN 



and berries that grace the hedge at this season with gay 

 colour. 



To-day, strange to say, the bees are out, but their journey 

 is in vain ; for it is a blossomless if a sunlit land. Not a 

 golden flower is on the gorse, which looks sprightly and full 

 of life among the clary that blossomed almost all the Summer 

 and Autumn. There is a warm wind, and as the branches of 

 the laburnum, heavy with seed vessels, are swayed by it, they 

 make a merry musical tinkle. The holly branches are showing 

 red here and there with a wealth of berries, and offer a tempting 

 feast to our home-staying, faithful birds ; there is also a giant 

 crop of hips and haws, which in many countries is said to be 

 a token of a hard and long Winter. This is but a piece of 

 folklore, and indeed in rural districts the Winter is foretold 

 in many a strange and curious manner. 



