JUNE 217 



As I stood quite still watching them, two larks that had been 

 fighting at a distance came twisting through the air, and passed so 

 close to me that their flapping wings almost touched my head. 

 Not more than an inch or so above the barley also skimmed a 

 pair of swallows hawking after flies, their little bodies shining like 

 flakes of tempered steel as they flashed by me. It was curious to 

 see how, without any apparent movement of the wings, they 

 glided in a curve from the level of the corn over the round top 

 of the root hale to the left, down the open end of which the yellow 

 mangold are rolled into a slanting golden heap. And all along 

 the hedgerow the little may trees that I have grown stood out 

 like bouquets of white bloom, while from the copse of Hollow 

 Hill beyond rose the song of the nightingale, sounding loud and 

 sweet in that heavy silence. 



A little higher up the hill is the bean field, No. 26, just now 

 full of bloom, that gives out what I think one of the sweetest of 

 perfumes. A person standing near these beans on such a day 

 becomes aware of a humming noise, which, on examination, he 

 will find to be caused by bees passing from flower to flower. 

 There seemed to be several bees to each stalk, and how many 

 tens of thousands of stalks stand in a six-acre field I should not 

 care to calculate. Where do all the bees come from, I wonder ? 

 I and a few others have some hives, but bees are not largely kept 

 in the village. Yet in that close alone their number must be 

 almost countless. 



I walked back over the root field, No. 23, that which we dosed 

 with Bungay refuse, the excellent and invigorating qualities 

 of which are evident just now in a magnificent crop of the most 

 flourishing weeds. The beet here, as elsewhere, are very small, 

 owing to the coolness of the season. Also I fear that the birds 

 have done them a good deal of damage, for this field lies so quiet 

 and secluded that they can work mischief without fear of disturb- 

 ance. Needless to say they especially the sparrows - take full 

 advantage of their opportunities, although I daresay that there are 

 still enough mangolds left for a plant 



