XI 



(Tloon 



LAZILY sailing clouds, and between 

 them, far away, the illimitable blue! 

 And how blue ! how cool ! how far 

 away! Never does the sky seem of so 

 real azure, so fresh and new, but so 

 mysteriously distant, as upon such a 

 July day as this; and never does the 

 earth seem so warm and near. I lie 

 outstretched upon it as close as I ever 

 lay upon my mother's breast. I feel the 

 crisp moss beneath me, the creeping of the bee- 

 tle under my shoulder, the heat of the gray stone 

 against my side. I throw out my hands, push my 

 fingers into the hot soil and feel them take root. 

 Mother earth ! The clouds sail on ; the bending blue 

 recedes ; and heaven ? It matters not. Here are 



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