1 76 A GARDEN DIARY 



other matters, so that it appears to be gone, but 

 a little search, or some happy accident, brings it 

 flying swiftly back, and the pleasure of that 

 repossession is so great that it seems almost 

 worth while that the thing should have been 

 temporarily mislaid. 



Of all such inalienable possessions the love of 

 out-of-door life is surely the most inalienable? 

 And is it not profoundly natural that it should 

 be so ? For this race, to which one belongs, 

 was after all born under an open sky, even 

 though every individual of which it is composed 

 may have been born to-day under roofs. We 

 do not any longer require the comfort of shelter- 

 ing boughs, nor yet to nestle at night in moss- 

 lined hollows, but the thought of such places still 

 lurks in our blood, and the life of out-of-doors 

 remains as much a part of the natural inheritance 

 of a man, as it is a part of the inheritance of a 

 fox, or of a wood-pigeon, or of a tiger moth. 



Back, back like the touch of half -forgotten 

 greetings comes a flood of remembrances to 

 the heart. Back flows the old stream along its 

 old channels. No longer tearing along with a 

 wild tumultuous rush, but still sweeping by, 

 full and clear, with a pleasant afternoon patter, 

 and showing many an unlocked - for nook, 

 many a forgotten corner along its banks, once 

 we surrender ourselves frankly to its guidance. 

 Back the scenes return ; ever back and back ; 



