AL FRESCO HOUSEKEEPING. 243 



appointed ways, with delight to both eye and ear. 

 All this is changed when the office of Jupiter 

 Pluvius devolves upon man; different indeed are 

 his methods. A man turns a stream loose in 

 a field or pasture, and it wanders whither it will 

 over the ground. The grass hides it, and the 

 walker, bird-student or botanist, steps splash 

 into it without the slightest warning. This is 

 always unpleasant, and is sometimes disastrous, 

 as when one attempts to cross the edge of a field 

 of some close-growing crop, and instantly sinks 

 to the top of the shoes in the soft mud. 



On the morning spoken of, I stopped before 

 the barrier, considering how I should pass it, 

 when the woman showed me a narrow passage 

 between the house and the stone wall, through 

 which I could reach the higher ground at the 

 back. I took this path, and in a moment was in 

 the grove of young oaks which made her out-of- 

 doors kitchen and yard. A fire was burning 

 merrily in the stove, which stood under a tree ; 

 frying-pans and baking-tins, dippers and dish- 

 cloths, hung on the outer wall of her little house, 

 and the whole had a camping-out air that was 

 captivating, and possible only in a rainless land. 

 I longed to linger and study this open-air house- 

 keeping ; if that woman had only been a bird ! 



But I passed on through the oak-grove back 

 yard, following a path the horses had made, till 



