20 THE RING OF NATURE 



It is just noon now. I can fancy or feel a sort 

 of shivering of the air crystals as though the world 

 acknowledged the fact. It seems as though, in 

 spite of the myriad million obstructions, the sun 

 managed to send down a subtle X-ray of hope. 

 Then he fades from aluminium to pale paper and 

 again disappears. But in twenty minutes he has 

 not only come to life again, but has grown to the 

 warmth of copper. As the hill slips below me he 

 brightens and brightens, till at the summit he is 

 actually blinding to look at and casts a shadow. 

 My face acknowledges his warmth, so does the 

 hoar-frost, for it flees from the grass he kisses, and 

 only holds its own behind the bushes. 



Yes, get behind your bushes while ye may, slaves 

 of Sut. ' His going forth is from the end of the 

 heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it ; and 

 there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.' Only 

 for a very little while can the vapours of earth 

 cheat us of the great fact that winter has done its 

 worst and summer is coming. 



The robin is singing up here, but that is nothing. 

 The robin was singing in the midst of the mist, the 

 only bird that was quite certain that it was all a 

 hoax. But from the hill-top up goes the 'dew- 

 delighted skylark ' up to find a place in heaven 

 where it can sing its heart out. Two ring-doves 

 flying far up catch the sun full on their breasts as 

 I have seen them lighted in the morning before 

 the sun reaches the earth. Yes, two doves and, if 

 you please, a pair of doves up in the air as love is, 



