By Leafy Ways. 37 



In the gray light of morning, long before the first 

 faint flush of dawn, the magnificent anthem of the 

 song-thrush sounds triumphant over all the voices of 

 awakening earth. The songs of birds, the hum of 

 myriad insects, the rustle of innumerable leaves fill 

 the air through the long summer days. 



And when the sunlight has faded from the land- 

 scape, 



. . . . when the brooding twilight 

 Unfolds her starry wings : 

 And worn hearts bless with tenderness 

 The peace that evetide brings ; 



when the louder 'voices of day are hushed, the ear is 

 conscious of softer sounds the little, ceaseless stirs 

 among the leaves, footfalls perhaps of tiny night-roving 

 creatures; the drone of a night-jar like a ghostly 

 spinning-wheel in the dim shadows ; a stave or two 

 from some restless nightingale; snatches of a sedge- 

 warbler's song ; perhaps even the note of a cuckoo. . 



The louder sounds of night are the shrill cries of 

 bats, that flutter like phantoms down the darkening 

 lanes ; the faint halloo of some wandering owl ; or the 

 croak of a heron, flying over unseen in the darkness. 



