PATH THROUGH THE CORNFIELDS 131 



washed - out poppies, but they of the short-fruited 

 kind poppies with ample petals of intensest scarlet 

 dye ; not nearly so common as many seem to 

 think absent from large districts of the country 

 where poppies abound oftenest found, perhaps, 

 near the seaside, probably because of the poverty 

 of the soil. 



These, wherever found, are the true corn poppies. 

 See them against the yellow, see them in the 

 sunshine, see them in the shadow, see them in the 

 ripples of light and shade, see them anyway, and 

 say if ever you saw anything so fair. 



Poppies are distant in their mood ; it may be 

 because their beauty is so evanescent that a touch 

 will dissipate it, their petals so fragile that a move- 

 ment will shed them. Hand grasps hand to prevent 

 the yellow-haired maiden falling forward among 

 the yellow grain. 



Satisfied at length, they turn away and pass 

 the clump of harebells chiming to the selfsame 

 painted lady. The butterfly rises to tempt another 

 scamper ; but the young have grown wise by ex- 

 perience, and the maidens have other thoughts, 

 innocently vain, in their heads. 



They sit down, big and little, under the self- 

 same lime tree to portion out the spoil, and to 



