82 STRA Y FEA THERS FROM MANY BIRDS. 



mossy bank below them, half buried in fern and grass 

 and meadowsweet, we may study Nature as summer 

 paints her. Even this old bank, with its ferns and weeds, 

 its background of hedgerow and its canopy of trees, is a 

 very encyclopaedia of knowledge, and will teach us much 

 if we care to question it ; and when tired of its 

 philosophy our thoughts may wander out into the distant 

 ring of country round us and shape themselves to other 

 things. The very grass on which we lie can preach a 

 sermon full of eloquence ; the ferns and flowers are 

 replete with knowledge. There is not a twig or a leaf 

 around us that is not full of natural wonders. We will 

 wait quietly here and watch the panorama of life as it 

 hurries past in ever-varying forms, a perfect kaleidoscope 

 of interesting beauty. There is no monotony in Nature. 

 Variety is her soul, and change, endless change the 

 secret of her life and being. Yes, CHANGE is the key- 

 note of Nature's system changeless change. This reads 

 like a paradox, nevertheless it is true. The simple wild 

 flowers round us will fade away, the leaves above our 

 head will wither and fall in their season, the blades of 

 grass grow up only to die. Yonder Sky Lark singing so 

 sweetly in the blue sky has but a short span of life ; the 

 Swallows, the Willow Wrens, and the other birds we can 

 see and hear around us will pass away in due course. Even 

 we ourselves have but a short time to live we are all 

 embraced by Death in common with the lowliest weed or 



