OUTDOORS 



mer's garb, wind-varied shades and tints of 

 emerald. The red clover and the white are 

 lost in the maze, and only wild pinks and 

 the " nigger-heads " at the meadow's edges 

 can compel recognition. Even the creamy 

 water-lilies are overwhelmed by great quan- 

 tities of green pads, and shadowed by the 

 grass and leaves that mark the shores where 

 they dream. 



The crow drifts over the woods, the red- 

 tailed hawk circles high above the crow, and 

 the buzzard blackens the spaces above where 

 the hawk flies. There is little of bird-music 

 save an occasional song-sparrow's sweet pip- 

 ing. Blue-jays scold and chase one another 

 along the stubby brush by the lake, and a 

 dandified kingfisher rattles by to perch on a 

 stake in a shallow bay near at hand. In the 

 orchard occasional shreds of breeze creep in 

 and out of the leaves, mousing about and let- 

 ting in the sunlight, and then they slip past, 

 out and on to the corn beyond. Crickets 

 creak in the grasses, and in the sun-throb- 

 bing waves of heat which seem to flutter on 

 the hills there is a hint of the " chink " of 

 importunate grasshoppers. Sometimes you 

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