86 NATURE NEAR LONDON 



back and drooping, unable to uphold its gorgeous robes. 

 The flower of the field pea, here again, would make a 

 model for a lady's hat ; so would a butterfly with closed 

 wings on the verge of a leaf; so would the broom 

 blossom, or the pink flower of the restharrow. This 

 hairy caterpillar, creeping along the hawthorn, which if 

 touched, immediately coils itself in a ring, very recently 

 was thought a charm in distant country places for some 

 diseases of childhood, if hung about the neck. Hedge 

 mustard, yellow and ragged and dusty, stands by the 

 gateway. 



In the evening, as the dew gathers on the grass, 

 which feels cooler to the hand some time before an 

 actual deposit, the clover and vetches close their leaves 

 the signal the hares have been waiting for to venture 

 from the sides of the fields where they have been 

 cautiously roaming, and take bolder strolls across the 

 open and along the lanes. The aspens rustle louder in 

 the stillness of the evening ; their leaves not only sway to 

 and fro, but semi-rotate upon the stalks, which causes 

 their scintillating appearance. The stars presently shine 

 from the pale blue sky, and the wheat shimmers dimly 

 white beneath them. 



So time. advances till to-day, watching the reapers from 

 the shadow of the copse, it seems as if within that golden 

 expanse there must be something hidden, could you but 

 rush in quickly and seize it some treasure of the sun- 

 shine ; and there is a treasure, the treasure of life stored 

 in those little grains, the slow product of the sun. But 

 it cannot be grasped in an impatient moment it must 

 be gathered with labour. I have threshed out in my 

 hand three ears of the ripe wheat : how many foot-pounds 

 of human energy do these few light grains represent ? 



The roof of the Crystal Palace yonder gleams and 



