OUTDOORS 



leaves, whose garish hues lent contrast to the 

 thick green grass. A jaybird's wing went 

 unnoticed across this panorama; the very 

 wing of a cardinal, were he flying past, would 

 have been swallowed in this sea of color. 



The gnarled and twisted oaks were bathed 

 in a tide of yellow sunlight that dreamed 

 drowsily among all this beauty, and the air 

 was hushed and the winds folded down into 

 utter quiet. Only the tiny gray sapsuckers 

 dipped, ducked, and bobbed about on the 

 tree-trunks, and their movements were as 

 noiseless as those of spiders. There was a 

 cathedral-like nobility in these great spaces, 

 with a suggestion of stilled music, the faces 

 of sculptured saints, the ghosts of Druidical 

 ceremonies. The breath of morning brooded 

 in the shadowy places, and the steps of noon 

 came slowly up the eastern hills. It was a 

 day snatched from paradise a day of days. 



Presently the harsh cry of a crow sounded 

 and his black wings for an instant flung a 

 shadow on the grass. Then the " skir " of 

 a hawk came in a challenging tone, and a 

 broader shadow followed where the crow's 

 flight had gone. Then all was deeper silence 

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