SUMMER-DAY THOUGHTS. 



277 



weird array of Arab camels, bowing their long necks tufted 

 with crimson braids, and measuring the brown sands of the 

 desert with ghost-like tread. 'Tis the moon of Egypt and 

 the waters of the Nile ; 'tis the palm-bough waves for him ; 

 and women, free-limbed, with flashing eyes, and antique 

 water- vases on their heads, move past him from the low- 

 rimmed shadowy wells. And he sees them there and smiles. 

 He sees on the beach by the sea the summer idler sitting 

 beneath the jutting rock, gazing far out upon the sea, yet 

 ignoring the white sails that pass up and down before him, as 





BY THE SEA. 



well as the open volume upon his knee, while his thoughts 

 float outward and upward with the graceful wreaths of smoke 

 that encircle his head ; and if of a practical turn, he listlessly 

 wonders why, if hia own delightful land furnishes some 



