50 FIELD AND HEDGEROW^ 



THE COUNTRY SUNDAY. 



Roses bloomed on every bush, and some of the great 

 hawthorns up which the briars had climbed seemed all 

 flowers. The white and pink-white petals of the June 

 roses adhered all over them, almost as if they had been 

 artificially gummed or papered on so as to hide the 

 leaves. Such a profusion of wild-rose bloom is rarely 

 seen. On the Sunday morning, as on a week-day morn- 

 ing, they were entirely unnoticed, and might be said in 

 their turn to take no heed of the sanctified character ot 

 the day. With a rush like a sudden thought the v/hite- 

 barrcd eave-swallows came down the arid road and rose 

 again into the air as easily as a man dives into the water 

 Dark specks beneath the white summer clouds, the 

 swifts, the black albatross of our skies, moved on thcii 

 unwearied wings. Like the albatross that floats ovci 

 the ocean and sleeps on the wing, the swift's scimitar 

 like pinions are careless of repose. Once now and thci 

 they came down to earth, not, as might be supposed, t> 

 the mansion or the church tower, but to the low tilc; 

 roof of an ancient cottage which they fancied for thci 

 home. Kings sometimes affect to mix with their sub 

 jects ; these birds that aspire to the extreme height o 

 the air frequently nest in the roof of a despised tenemeni 

 inhabited by an old woman who never sees them. Th 

 corn was green and tall, the hops looked well, the fox 



