AN AUTUMN PICTURE 



With almost all animals (and birds and insects 

 too, in most cases) Nature seems to bestow the 

 greater beauty upon the masculine gender. Cer- 

 tainly a buck's head is far prettier than a doe's. Is 

 it ungallant to say so ? 



But we are not fated to have a shot at him. As 

 he saunters leisurely out into the open a covey of 

 partridges comes whirring over the clover, and the 

 buck, scared by the rush of wings, with a deep bark, 

 turns and vanishes again in the depths of the wood. 



Bad luck, you say ? 



After all it would have been almost a pity for the 

 crack of the rifle to have disturbed the quiet of the 

 evening, and to have taken the life of the most 

 graceful creature in the picture ! 



And now the twilight has come, and the shadows 

 are falling fast about us. Far in the west the 

 evening star hangs trembling in the last faint glow 

 of the sunset ; and from a distant village the sound 

 of the Angelus is borne faintly on the little breeze 

 that is springing up. 



"Twilight and evening bell, 

 And after that the dark!" 



We can see no longer the roe are now but dark 

 blurs in the gathering gloom let us go ! 



117 G 



