2 FRESH FIELDS 



merits of the hand and soul of man, now reduced 

 to their last modicum of fertilizing mould ! 



With the breath of the chimney there came pres- 

 ently the chimney swallow, and dropped much fa- 

 tigued upon the deck of the steamer. It was a 

 still more welcome and suggestive token, the bird 

 of Virgil and of Theocritus, acquainted with every 

 cottage roof and chimney in Europe, and with the 

 ruined abbeys and castle walls. Except its lighter- 

 colored breast, it seemed identical with our barn 

 swallow; its little black cap appeared pulled down 

 over its eyes in the same manner, and its glossy 

 steel-blue coat, its forked tail, its infantile feet, and 

 its cheerful twitter were the same. But its habits 

 are different; for in Europe this swallow builds in 

 chimneys, and the bird that answers to our chimney 

 swallow, or swift, builds in crevices in barns and 

 houses. 



We did not suspect we had taken aboard our 

 pilot in the little swallow, yet so it proved: this 

 light navigator always hails from the port of bright, 

 warm skies; and the next morning we found our- 

 selves sailing between shores basking in full sum- 

 mer sunshine. Those who, after ten days of sor- 

 rowing and fasting in the desert of the ocean, have 

 sailed up the Frith of Clyde, and thence up the 

 Clyde to Glasgow, on the morning of a perfect mid- 

 May day, the sky all sunshine, the earth all ver- 

 dure, know what this experience is; and only those 

 can know it. It takes a good many foul days in 

 Scotland to breed one fair one; but when the fair 



