112 IDLEHURST : 



the eternal dandelion and groundsel which infest my 

 quarters "a legacy," as Ministers say of a deficit, 

 "from my predecessors" former tenants, who let 

 the weeds run knee-high, and left a sufficiency of 

 wholesome work to any reformer there might chance 

 to be among their successors. 



After mornings among the hydra-heads of un- 

 necessary vegetation sow-thistle, mallow, chickweed, 

 plantain it became easy to slip out of tune with all 

 the life which worked and rejoiced in the flaming 

 afternoon ; with the starlings sliding on their incessant 

 journeys to feed the shrieking nestful in the roof; 

 the swifts balancing and cutting superb curves high 

 up in the blue ; the myriad flies that made the air 

 glitter with their jerking dance ; the innumerable bees 

 whose steady bourdon, a little sharpened or flattened 

 from one note from moment to moment, hummed 

 about the white blossoms of the holly-trees : all these 

 were too light-hearted for the soul whose labours, 

 spite of the forlorn pretence of the water-pot, were 

 slowly coming to nought in the disastrous weather. 



Last night closed in with hazy drifts about a 

 blood-red sun, without a hint of change. Then, in 

 the small hours, when we were all asleep, a quiet rain 

 began ; the great watering-pot was swung impartially 

 and completely over all, and we woke to find the 



